Committee

Fiona has over 19 years’ experience as an environmental professional and is currently working as a Business Development Manager NSW/ACT and Principal Environmental Planner for NGH. Fiona has a wide range of experience and skills, specialising in environmental impact assessment and environmental approvals. Fiona is a Registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner (REAP) and Certified Environmental Practitioner – Impact Assessment Specialist (CEnvP-IA).
She has worked for both the public and private sector on both large and small linear and other infrastructure projects, through all stages of development including feasibility and options, environmental impact assessment and construction and/or operation, with an aim of delivering projects with good, practical environmental outcomes.

She has worked on a range of projects including renewables, road and rail infrastructure, water and port infrastructure and lubricant blending plants, with a focus on linear infrastructure. Fiona joined the HEI committee in 2018 and is looking to provide further education and networking opportunities for environmental professionals in the Hunter.

Tegann is an environmental lawyer with a passion for renewable energy. With over 12 years’ industry experience, Tegann is currently the Legal Counsel for CWP Renewables supporting the delivery of utility scale wind, solar, and firming projects across Australia. Prior to her role at CWP, Tegann worked for an environmental consultancy advising on property transactions for a $2B renewable energy portfolio, undertaking legislative review and compliance across infrastructure and recycling sectors, and improving organisational efficiencies.

Tegann holds a Bachelor of Social Science, Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Business Administration with distinction from the University of Newcastle.

Outside of the workplace, Tegann is committed to the Hunter community having served on the HunterNet Future Leaders Committee and volunteering as the Hunter and Northern Leadership Coordinator for Canteen Australia.

Having traversed environmental science and management, human geography, palaeoclimatology and business, Roshni is a thought leader, a compassionate disruptor, a connector and someone who gets things done. She is making it her life’s work to harness location intelligence to create tangible positive change for society, creating real traction around sustainability and leveraging tech for good. Roshni loves dogs (but not cats), experimental cooking, and reads copiously at every opportunity. At FrontierSI, Roshni is at the forefront of the industry, bringing together cutting-edge innovation into useful applications for academia, industry and government. Roshni is also recognised speaker at geospatial and environmental conferences, and a trained STEM leadership coach.

Roshni has an interdisciplinary background in both research and industry in environmental science and management and spatial information. She studied at the University of Newcastle before undertaking further studies and work in Sydney. Roshni brings a strong background in governance and process to HEI, and is passionate about the local and regional environmental management and the many opportunities these bring to showcase leadership and excellence in these spaces.

Alina has nine years experience in environmental consulting on a variety of projects across a broad range of industries including energy, resources and transport. Alina holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management and a Master of Environmental Management and Sustainability from University of Newcastle.

Alina is a Senior Environmental Consultant at EPS skilled in the management and environmental assessment of local, regional and state significant projects throughout Australia. Prior to EPS, Alina worked professionally both in the public sector and for private tier-one international consulting firms.

During her seven years at EPS, Alina has developed her project management and technical capabilities by working on complex multi-disciplinary renewable energy, ecotourism and infrastructure projects.

Shifaan is an Environmental Scientist with an Honours in his Marine Science major. With a deep admiration for marine sciences, Shifaan has previously worked at Irukandji Shark and Ray Encounters and has furthered himself deeper into scientific research of marine fauna.

Having previously conducted research on many coral reefs – most notably at Vanuatu and Norfolk Island – for research alongside the University of Newcastle, Shifaan has come to develop an obsessive interest towards coral reefs and a passion for animals and marine ecosystems.

Troy took up a lecturing position at the University of Newcastle in 2012 (School of Environmental and Life Sciences) after spending 7 years at the National Centre for marine Conservation and Resource Sustainability at the University of Tasmania. Troy is currently a member of the Australian Marine Sciences Association NSW Branch Committee, Hunter Water Customer and Community Advisory Committee, Port Stephens and Great Lakes Marine Park Advisory Committee, Central Coast Council Terrigal Sub-Catchment Water Quality Committee.

A/Prof Gaston has over 20 years experience in estuarine ecology and investigating ecosystem functioning. Degraded ecosystems are a global issue and targeting on-ground works for habitat and ecosystem repair will be paramount to ensure recovery of estuarine and coastal systems. As such, much of A/Prof Gaston’s work has been the use novel chemical tracers to determine the relative importance of different nutrient sources and habitats to ecosystem functioning. He has worked with a wide range of entities including local councils, state and commonwealth government, industry and NGO’s across NSW, Tasmania and Queensland.

Dr. Alex Callen is a conservation scientist in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle, specialising in ecological restoration for threatened wildlife. This has led to a number of industry and government partnerships involving habitat design, creation and management and monitoring for vulnerable amphibian communities in complex natural and industrial environments.

Alex’s research in biodiversity conservation also extends to understanding the role of community science and science art communication in improving biodiversity protection and the human experience. In 2020, Alex co-curated Biomes, an annual community outreach art science exhibition showcasing recent biodiversity conservation research. Inspired by the response of the community to the role of art in science communication, Alex co-founded Stream – Community for Knowledge Exchange (https://streamcommunity.com.au/) which increases accessibility of science to the community by collaboratively developing and supporting experiential exhibitions and workshops.

Alex has experience in general flora and fauna surveys, surveys of threatened amphibians, citizen science programs, bioacoustics analysis, amphibian micro-chipping, habitat preference analysis, qPCR analysis (disease/infection analysis), water quality monitoring and analysis, statistical analysis and modelling, project management, impact assessment and industry liaison. She worked as an environmental scientist and ecologist in a variety of government and industry positions for sixteen years before returning to Newcastle University to pursue her research and teaching career in 2013.

Clare has six years of experience in urban and regional planning and environmental impact assessment for a range of developments throughout Australia. Clare is currently a Senior Environmental Planner at Ramboll involved in environmental impact assessment, feasibility and options assessments, due diligence and red flags assessment and planning approvals for a range large scale infrastructure and renewable energy projects. Clare is excited to be involved in the environmental impact assessment industry as the Hunter region experiences a transition from coal fired power plants to the construction and operation of renewable energy alternatives.

In 2016, Lachlan embarked on a career change to follow his passion for River Management, Earth Science and Environmental Management. He is currently working at WaterNSW applying his 15 years’ experience in Relationship Management, Sales and Customer Service Process Improvement to the water regulation space.

Lachlan recently moved to Newcastle from Sydney and is very interested in broadening his involvement in the Environment sector in the Hunter Region.

Samantha has 9 years of experience within the environmental sector in both consulting and local government. Her experience ranges from environmental management & approvals, resource efficiency reviews, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, asset automation business cases, circular economy, smart cities insights and behavioural & systems change. She is passionate in her field to share experiences and ideas to endorse collaboration and collective thinking. Samantha has been a member of the HEI since 2014.

Isaac Conway works in construction project management and has a keen interest in disaster resilience and sustainable development. He completed his undergraduate studies in 2018 at the University of Newcastle in Environmental Engineering and Civil Engineering and is undertaking a Masters in Professional Engineering (Civil) with a focus on disaster resilience and risk reduction. In Isaac’s professional role, he primarily works on large social infrastructure projects such as hospitals, schools and community parks.