Speakers
Andrew Gissing (he/him)
Chief Executive Officer, Natural Hazards Research Australia (NHRA)
Andrew Gissing is the Chief Executive Officer of Natural Hazards Research Australia.
He was previously the General Manager of Risk Frontiers, the Deputy Chief Officer and Director of Emergency Management and Communication with the Victoria State Emergency Service, and the Director of Enterprise Risk Management at the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.
Ness Wiebford (she/her)
Youth in Emergencies – Project Lead, Australian Red Cross
Ness Wiebford leads the Youth in Emergency Development Program at Australian Red Cross.
Ness views the world as a network of interrelated systems, focusing on how cross discipline collaboration can lead to positive outcomes for people and the environment.
With a Master of Community Development and Social Change, Ness is passionate about systemic change in social realms and applies complexity science to her work. With almost 20 years experience in community development and advocacy, she enjoys connecting with people from all walks of life and works to amplify diverse voices.
Ness is a strong advocate for the power of storytelling to inspire change and foster meaningful connections. She actively incorporates lived experience speakers into her initiatives and promotes genuine co-design in her projects.
Through her expertise in complexity science, Ness works to enhance emergency management systems via collaboration, advocacy, and improved education for children and young people.
Ness will be joined by a Program Participant during her presentation.
Carla Hall (she/her)
Disaster Resilience Coalition Principal, Youth Affairs Council Victoria
Carla joined the Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) in mid-2020, working as the Rural Youth Projects Coordinator, prior to this Carla worked directly with the flame impacted community of East Gippsland throughout the 2019-2020 bushfires in the evacuation centre and brings a lived experience of disaster to her work in this space. Carla’s role involves the development of a youth-centred approach to bushfire recovery and mental health engaging directly with young people and community members in rural and regional areas about their experiences of, response to, and recovery from the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires across Eastern Victoria. This provided young people, with the opportunity to share their ideas for recovery, rebuilding and preparation for a better future. For the past 15 years Carla has worked in the Youth Sector in Local Government, Generalist youth work, employment, and homelessness. Carla lives and was raised on the lands of the Gunai Kurnai People and acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded, and this always was, and always will be aboriginal land.
Harmony Carmichael
Disaster Resilience Coalition Support Officer, Youth Affairs Council Victoria
Harmony is a young person from North-East Victoria and has a passion for advocating for the unique issues that impact rural and regional young people, being one herself. They have a passion for youth mental health, wellbeing, and how community connection and participation fosters this. Growing up regionally, Harmony is enthusiastic about breaking down barriers that living rurally creates for young people.
For the last two years, Harmony has been completing their Diploma of Community Services. They have been working with YACVic, facilitating training and workshops across Victoria with young people and youth workers to help build their capacity in supporting their communities.
Harmony is a peer worker for the Future Proof: Young People, Disaster Recovery and (Re)building Communities project, working alongside Youth Workers and Peer Workers across Eastern and North-Eastern Victoria to build upon the youth-led efforts within these communities and support the growth of resilience and capacity of young people in disaster contexts.
Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People NSW
The webinar will also include a special video presentation from the team at Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People NSW.
Moderator: Margaret Moreton
Executive Director, AIDR
Margaret is the Executive Director, AIDR, and is looking forward to leading and strengthening the reach and work of AIDR to enhance community resilience to natural hazards, across Australia.
Margaret’s first career was with the federal government, working in a range of social policy and program areas and preparing advice for successive governments for more than 33 years.
Motivated by her own experiences during the 2003 Canberra fires, and the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria, Margaret undertook original community-based research focussed on the key factors that contribute to disaster recovery and resilience. She gathered and compared the views of national leaders of recovery, and community members who have been directly affected by emergency events across Eastern Australia.
Margaret has since developed a strong reputation as a disaster resilience advisor and specialist, working to build community resilience in partnership with:
- communities,
- non-government organisations,
- local, State and Federal government,
- emergency services organisations, and
- the business and philanthropy sectors.
Join the conversation:
#DRRday #AreYouReady24
