Our Speakers
Our Speakers
The good humans who support our mission and give their time to share their knowledge.
Dr. Melissa Robson-Williams
Dr Melissa Robson-Williams is the portfolio leader for the ‘Catalysing Change’ research group at the Bioeconomy Science Institute Maiangi Taiao.
Emeritus Prof. Ian Shaw
Ian Shaw is Professor of Toxicology at the University of Canterbury. Professor Shaw is an international expert on the impact of environmental contaminants on human health, particularly in a food safety context and is a passionate communicator of science. He has had over 40 years’ experience in academia, industry and government, both in the UK and New Zealand, which includes chairing the UK government’s Pesticide Residues Committee and working as the National Food Safety Programme Manager at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) in New Zealand.
Prof. Glenn Banks
Glenn Banks is an Aotearoa New Zealand academic. Banks gained a PhD from The Australian National University, Canberra in 1997. He taught for 11 years in Geography at UNSW (ADFA, Canberra), and moved to Massey University in 2008. Banks is currently a full professor of geography at Massey University. He served as Head of School (People, Environment and Planning) between 2016-2022.
Dr. Nancy Wong
Dr. Nancy Wong is the Pacific Communications & Partnerships Lead with the World Health Organization (WHO). A senior strategic communications leader with more than a decade of experience, Nancy works at the intersection of policy, technology, public interest and risk.
Dr. Cathrine Dyer
Dr. Cathrine Dyer is a Lecturer in Climate Change at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She teaches in environmental politics and international climate change policy. Her PhD research examined government underreactions to climate change, leading to an interest in commons expansion and collective responses. Cathrine is a regular guest on The Hoon podcast, covering current climate change issues with journalists Bernard Hickey (The Kākā) and Peter Bale.
Monique Kelly
Monique is co-founder and General Manager of Wao Aotearoa, a charitable trust based in the Queenstown Lakes District.
Dr. Kate Meyer
Kate Meyer is a sustainability scientist, engineer, and creator of Planetary Accounting, an internationally recognised, peer-reviewed framework that translates global limits for nature into actionable metrics. She is also the Founder and CEO of the Planetary Accounting Network – a charitable trust whose purpose is to inspire and enable people to operate within the planet’s environmental limits.
Sam Parsons
Sam is a nature and climate change resilience specialist with experience in nature-related risk assessments, nature-based solutions, and nature strategy development across government, community, and private sector organisations.
Camilla Rutherford
Camilla is an award-winning photographer and visual storyteller based in Tarras. Over the past 15 years, she has built a distinctive body of work across both still and moving image, combining a cinematic eye with a deeply narrative approach.