Since January 2020 she has been based in the Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education (University of Melbourne), researching the history of trade union training in Australia for an ARC Linkage project, bringing together historians, vocational educationalists and industrial law experts. Garner became involved in community actions to support her local government secondary school and this inspired her to train in secondary teaching at Victoria University (2013-2014). She worked as a French and History teacher at Albert Park College from 2015 to 2019 and co-led the Languages curriculum team with colleague Tasha Brown. She has been playing cello since the age of ten, and was a long-time member of the Xylouris Ensemble. The ensemble, led by Giorgos Xylouris on Laouto, performed contemporary, original and traditional Cretan music and released several studio albums. Garner currently plays in a trio, the endlings, with David Bowers and Dee Hannan, and has also played with euphonia with Mairead Hannan and Dee Hannan. Garner is married with three children.