Keynote & Invited Speakers
Forestry Australia are delighted to announce the below Keynote and Invited Speakers who will be joining us at our 2024 Symposium ‘Healthy and resilient forests for our future’.
Keynote Speakers
Dr Lori Daniels
Faculty of Forestry, UBC, Vancouver
Lori Daniels is the inaugural Koerner Chair of the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence and directs the Tree-Ring Lab at UBC. Lori investigates the impacts of natural and human disturbances and climate change on forests. With her research team, she has on-going projects on wildfires, forest dynamics, and social-ecological resilience to climate change across British Columbia. Her enduring partnerships with local, provincial, and national governments, environmental organizations, forest management companies, community forests, and First Nations ensure her scientific advances are translated to active conservation, restoration and management. She is among the 150 Canadian Scientists recognised in 2017 for research shaping new frontiers and making our world a better place (#150Scientists). She was received the 2019 Canadian Institute of Forestry Scientific Achievement Award, 2022 Distinguished Career Award in Biogeography from Association of American Geographers, and 2023 Distinguished Leader in Research Award from the Association of Fire Ecologists.
Dr Bill Jackson
Bill Jackson is an adjunct Professor with the Tropical Forest and People Research Centre of the University of the Sunshine Coast and an independent consultant with over 40 years’ experience in forest conservation and management, protected area management and community development.
Bill was the chief author for the Australia State of Environment Report 2016, and he held the positions of Chief Executive of Parks Victoria and Director of National Parks from late 2010 until mid-2015. Prior to his appointment to Parks Victoria, he was Deputy Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). During his 13 years with the IUCN, he helped establish the organisation’s overall strategy and worked on a wide range of conservation issues in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. Earlier in his career he worked on community forestry in Nepal and forest and fire management in New South Wales. His PhD focused on community forestry in Nepal.
Kirsha Kaechele
Kirsha Kaechele is an artist and curator at Mona (Museum of Old and New Art), and founder of Material Institute—a charity with branches in two countries—New Orleans, USA, and Lutruwita / Tasmania, Australia. She is interested in the space where complex problems exist, and places transformation at the heart of her work. For Kaechele, problems are a medium for art.
Her projects include: Forest Economics Congress—where economists, the forest industry, scientists, conservationists and artists come together to investigate how markets might harness human initiatives to sustain forests globally; Eat the Problem—a super-deluxe food and art compendium featuring a series of ‘recipes’ using invasive species (both real and surreal) with an accompanying exhibition at Mona; CA$H 4 GUN$—a conceptual artwork in the form of a gun buyback scheme in New Orleans; and Material Institute—a registered charity in with a vision of healthy, beautiful and resilient communities where children, young people and their families can achieve their full potential.
Adam Fennessy PSM
Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Adam Fennessy PSM is the Secretary of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).
Adam has over 25 years of public sector experience at state and federal levels. His former roles have included Secretary of the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Secretary of the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, the Victorian Public Sector Commis-sioner and Dean & CEO of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Adam has worked in the private sector as a partner with global advisory firm Ernst & Young.
Invited Speakers
The following Invited Speakers will be joining us at the Symposium in either plenary, concurrent or panel presentations.
More invited Speakers will be announced soon – stay tuned!
- Dr Patrick Baker, University of Melbourne
- A/Prof Sue Baker, University of Tasmania
- David Bennett, PF Olsen
- Mike Bleby, freelance forester
- Dr Tim Brodribb, University of Tasmania
- Dr Tegan Brown, Forest Fire Management Committee
- Daniel Burton, Educated by Nature
- Rachael Cavanagh
- Yvette Eglington, University of Melbourne
- Dr Tom Fairman, University of Melbourne
- Rebecca Ford, University of Melbourne
- Dr Paul Foreman, Blue Devil Consulting
- James Grimsdale, University of Tasmania
- Mike Lawson, SFMES
- Dr Rachelle Meyer, Trees on Farms Project
- Myles Mitchell
- Tim McBride, HVP
- Dr Jim O’Hehir, Forestry Centre of Excellence, University of South Australia
- Dr Nahuel Pachas, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
- Krista Patterson-Majoor, Cassinia Environmental
- Angeline Pool, Wadawurrung Corporation
- Dr Elizabeth Pryde, Greening Australia
- Rowan Reid, Bambra Agroforestry Farm
- Mike Ryan, Senior Project Officer, Forest Ecology
- Zoe Ryan, Climate Friendly
- Prof Jacki Schirmer, University of Canberra Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Network
- Michael Schofield, Midway Tasmania
- Chris Slade, Forestry Corporation NSW
- Myall Tarran, SA Department of Primary Industries and Regions
- Elder Phillip Ugle
- Kerry Wailes, forester and natural health practitioner
- Rob Waterworth, FLINTpro
- Dr Dean Williams, Australian Forest and Wood Innovations
- Prof Kath Williams, University of Melbourne
- Dr Danielle Wiseman, Plantation Health Collaborative
- Fabiano Ximenes, NSW Department of Primary Industries
More speakers will be announced soon, along with a preliminary program – stay tuned for more information soon!