Our Team

STAFF:
Our staff play the role of "Network Support Team" and strive to ensure our membership is working as strategically and collaboratively as possible.

about JULIE-ANNE

JULIE-ANNE RICHARDS

is CANA’s Executive Director. She leads on strategy and planning across the Network, supporting CANA staff to grow a strong, effective and diverse climate movement in Australia. She has worked with civil society around the world including for Climate Action Network International, Oxfam Great Britain and Oxfam Australia, and with Pacific civil society. She developed and campaigned on a Climate Damages Tax on the fossil fuel industry, and has written on climate justice, loss and damage, finance, displacement, litigation, coal and energy intensive industries. Julie-Anne loves epic train holidays and growing food on her balcony. She is based on the land of the Eora Nation (Sydney).

about Oliver

Oliver Toohey

is CANA’s Climate Campaign Analyst. He develops insights and analysis to inform major strategic decisions of the climate movement and implements key campaigns. A solicitor by training, Oliver has eight years experience bridging human rights and international policy, with a particular focus on climate change. Prior to working with CANA he was based in Dublin working on issues of Climate Justice with the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, he has also worked with the UN Development Programme and for the Australian Government’s Office of International Law. Oliver is based on the land of the Eora Nation (Sydney).

about Melinda

Melinda Millen

is CANA’s Network Organiser. She supports CANA members by building relationships and their capacity to organise and manages events for member collaboration as well as network communications. Melinda organises with the Sutherland Climate Action Network and is a board member of the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre. After completing a Masters of Environmental Management, she was a lead within 350.org’s Fossil Free UNSW divestment campaign and Share Sydney. A member of the New Economy Network Australia, Melinda is passionate about an economic system with foundations in ecological health and social justice. Melinda loves camping in the bush with her young family, yoga and pilates and is based on the land of the Eora Nation (Sydney).

about Nicky

Nicky Ison

is CANA’s Strategist, with a particular focus on the domestic energy transition. Nicky is also a Founding Director of the Community Power Agency and a Research Associate at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is the lead author of the Repower Australia Plan, a policy blueprint to transition to 100% renewable energy, and has spent over fifteen years working and volunteering in the climate and community energy movements. In 2014, Nicky was recognised on the Westpac and Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence List. Nicky holds a first class honours degree in Environmental Engineering and a degree in Arts. Nicky enjoys cooking, board games and spending time at the beach, and has a deep abiding love of mangos. Nicky is based on the land of the Eora Nation (Sydney).

about Alison

Alison Platt

is CANA’s Administrator. She manages the accounts and legal compliance as well as administering the CANA Small Grants Scheme. After leaving the UK’s financial sector, Alison has worked at Trees For Life in SA, who work to revegetate and protect bushland, farmland and urban terrain. She has also worked at Sustainability House, an organisation which provides energy assessments and design services to help their clients create environmentally sustainable homes and commercial buildings. Alison sings in a choir and enjoys dancing (latin and ballroom) and nature photography. She volunteers at Trees For Life as well as Freedom Hill Animal Sanctuary and is based on the land of the Kaurna people (Adelaide).

about Lindsay

Lindsay Soutar

is CANA’s Campaigner and Acting Manager. Lindsay was previously the National Director and founder of Solar Citizens where she spent more than 8 years as a campaigner and community organiser working for a renewable powered future. Lindsay first got involved in the climate movement when she set up a local climate action group - Climate Action Newtown. Lindsay was previously a CANA board member and is a former Young Environmentalist of the Year. Lindsay is based on the land of the Eora Nation (Sydney).

BOARD:
Our board is democratically elected by our membership and provides strategic, governance, and financial oversight to the network.

about Linh

Linh Do

is the Australia and Pacific lead for Climate Reality, Al Gore’s leadership program. In the past decade, she has worked on energy efficiency with the United Nations Environment Programme, international policy communication around the Paris Agreement with Climate Action Network (CAN) International and The Verb, and on community organising at the Australian Conservation Foundation. Linh has been recognised as Australian Geographic’s Young Conservationist of the Year. Outside of thinking about social movements, she can be found at a music festival or practicing yoga. She is based in Melbourne.

about Louise

Louise Matthiesson

Louise is the Director for the Queensland Conservation Council and has been involved in environmental and climate campaigns for around 20 years, working for a range of community groups in Victoria and Queensland. Most recently she was the Queensland Campaigner for Solar Citizens and prior to that played a lead role in the Fight for the Reef campaign against new coal mines in the Galilee Basin and port expansions along the Great Barrier Reef Coast. Louise is based in Brisbane.

about Kate

Kate Smolski

Kate Smolski is an environmental advocate with over 15 years of experience in grassroots organizing, campaign strategy, media relations, policy and lobbying. As a grassroots organiser and campaigner Kate has worked for several leading US environmental non-profits including Green Corps, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace. Kate moved to Sydney in 2012; she now leads the Nature Conservation Council of NSW as the CEO, after two years as the Campaigns Director.

about Simon

Simon Bradshaw

Simon Bradshaw is Oxfam Australia’s Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator. He has been a researcher, policy advisor and campaigner for climate action for over a decade and with Oxfam since 2012. Simon’s work has taken him to many countries of the region and to successive rounds of international climate negotiations. He has authored reports on international climate finance, climate change and the Pacific, the role of renewable energy in reducing poverty, and how Australia is measuring up against its international responsibilities on climate change. Simon joined the CANA Board in 2015.

about Louise

Louise Tarrant

Is a life-long union activist. Her work has mainly focussed on building capacity in unions to develop and run campaigns that genuinely shift power and in so doing give workers a voice, respect and greater reward for their effort. Much of this work was associated with United Voice campaigns that saw cleaners organise across Australian cities, early childhood educators fight for recognition, and workers give new voice to a broader political agenda and explore new ways to respond to environmental concerns.

about Moira

Moira Williams

is the secretary of the CANA Board. Moira has been actively involved in grassroots campaigns fighting coal and gas projects across the country for a decade. She co-founded Tipping Point, an organisation that is currently supporting the amazing network of groups working on the #StopAdani campaign. In her spare time she enjoys getting out for overnight hikes and bashing out a tune at Karaoke. She lives and works on Jagera and Turrbal land in so-called Brisbane.

about Victoria

Victoria McKenzie-McHarg

Victoria has been Chair of the CANA board since October 2015, and is passionate about the power of collaborative leadership to create systemic social change. In late 2017, Victoria joined Bank Australia as Manager of Strategy and Planning. Prior to this Victoria has worked as the Climate Campaign Manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation, and at Environment Victoria. In 2012, Victoria was listed as one of The Age Melbourne Magazine’s top 100 most influential, inspirational, provocative and creative Victorians for her work leading a legal and community campaign against a proposed new coalfired power station – a campaign that ultimately won.

about Duncan

Duncan Jinks

Duncan is the Board Treasurer and is an environmental and sustainability professional. The focus of his work is on energy policy and politics, community-led sustainability development and the practical delivery of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. With a Bachelor of Environmental Science, a Master of Sustainable Development and currently working towards a Master of Business Administration, Duncan has had diverse experience working in number of environmental roles in local and state government and working within Australia’s environment and climate movements.