Our team
Professor David Schlosberg – Director
David Schlosberg is Professor of Environmental Politics and Director of the Sydney Environment Institute. His work focuses on environmental, ecological, and climate justice; environment and everyday life; and climate adaptation planning and policy. Professor Schlosberg has worked extensively with local and state governments on just adaptation and resilience planning, the social impacts of climate change, and community-based food systems and policy. At SEI, he is one of the Research Leads on Creating Just Food and Energy Policy, Self organising systems to minimise future disaster risk, Concepts and practices of multispecies justice, and Grounded Imaginaries.
Professor Schlosberg’s authored and co-authored works include Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism, Defining Environmental Justice, Climate-Challenged Society, and Sustainable Materialism. He is co-editor of both The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society and The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory. Articles on environmental and climate justice, multispecies justice, just adaptation, and contemporary environmental movements are among the top-cited in multiple journals, including Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Politics, WIREs Climate Change, Ethics and International Affairs, and Contemporary Political Theory. Professor Schlosberg has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, Australian National University, Princeton University, University of Washington, UC Santa Cruz, and University of Manchester, among others.
Professor Danielle Celermajer - Deputy Director Academic
Danielle Celermajer is a Professor of Sociology and Social Policy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, and Deputy Director – Academic at the Sydney Environment Institute.
She is the Director of the Multispecies Justice Project and the Research Lead on Concepts and Practices of Multispecies Justice.
Professor Celermajer lived through the 2019-20 NSW bushfires and wrote of her experience of the “killing of everything”, which she calls “omnicide”. She has been widely published on the topic, including her book Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future.
Professor Thom van Dooren - Deputy Director - Member Engagement
Thom van Dooren is Professor of Environmental Humanities in the School of Humanities (Discipline of Gender and Cultural Studies) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Deputy Director – Membership Engagement at the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney.
His research focuses on some of the many philosophical, ethical, cultural, and political issues that arise in the context of species extinction and human entanglements with threatened species and places. These themes are explored in depth in his books: Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction (Columbia UP, 2014), The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds (Columbia UP, 2019), and A World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions (MIT Press, 2022). These books have been translated into various languages and been awarded or shortlisted for a range of prizes, including the Ludwik Fleck Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (non-fiction, shortlisted).
Thom is a leading figure in the international discussions and collaborations that are shaping the environmental humanities as a field of teaching and research. With Deborah Bird Rose, he was founding editor of the first journal dedicated to the field, Environmental Humanities (Duke University Press). He has held a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers at the Rachel Carson Centre, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2014-16) and a Professor II appointment at the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities at the University of Oslo (2020-2022). His research has been funded by a range of other prestigious grants and fellowships, including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2017-2021), several ARC Discovery Projects, and a Humboldt Research Award.
Carolyn Hogg - Deputy Director - External Engagement
Carolyn has been working on the conservation of threatened species for over twenty-five years both in Australia and overseas.
She is the Science Lead & Chair of the national Threatened Species Initiative, a program generating genomic resources for Australia's threatened species, and co-lead of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group in the Faculty of Science. Carolyn has been working with the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program for the past 14 years; in addition to other species such as orange-bellied parrots, koalas, bilbies and woylies.
Working closely with both academic and conservation management partners, her vision is to create a conservation legacy for Australia by changing the way we integrate science, management and policy; to proactively promote species’ resilience in the face of a changing world. This can be achieved by developing better tools and technologies to integrate molecular genetics into real-time conservation management decisions.
Emma Bones - General Manager
Emma Bones is General Manager of the Sydney Environment Institute. With a background in consulting and the not-for-profit sector, she has broad ranging skills across operations, strategy and finance. She has worked as a management consultant, developing strategies and designing operating models for government agencies and not-for-profits, and held senior roles in charities with a focus on building impactful and sustainable organisations. Emma is a registered Chartered Accountant and a Board member of Groundswell Giving and the Local and Independent News Association.
Nancy Lee - Program Manager
Nancy Lee is the Sydney Environment Institute’s Program Manager. Nancy has a background in qualitative research and experience in managing academic and commercial projects.
She has been at the University of Sydney a number of years in research and professional roles focused on research translation and impact. Most recently, she’s worked with the university’s multidisciplinary initiatives, including the Charles Perkins Centre and the Sydney Policy Lab, where she facilitated multidisciplinary collaborations in the areas of chronic disease and community-led policy development.
Ana Reilly - Biodiversity Hub Manager
Ana is SEI's Biodiversity Hub Manager. The Hub aims to accelerate multidisciplinary research to address the biodiversity crisis. The program fosters new and existing research collaborations between the University and industry, government, and community partners.
Ana has extensive experience in state and federal government, where she developed and implemented policies and sustainability programs in areas such as climate change adaptation, net zero emissions, circular economy, and biodiversity and carbon markets.
She is passionate about enhancing our relationships with nature to reduce risks and identify opportunities for nature-positive outcomes.
Genevieve Wright - Senior Project Officer
Genevieve Wright manages some of SEI’s research and strategic projects and its public programming. She is the Project Manager of the Climate Disaster and Adaptation research theme and is currently leading a project that aims to improve the coordination of climate research at the University of Sydney. Genevieve has a background in project management, communications and filmmaking. She was the Project Officer on SEI’s Grounded Imaginaries project which explored the transformative power of climate imaginaries in empowering communities to take meaningful collective action. The project was in partnership with two Indian organisations, worked alongside eight communities in Australia and India, and mentored 14 youth fellows.
Genevieve holds a Bachelor of Communications majoring in both Media Arts and Production and Journalism from the University of Technology Sydney. She is currently undertaking a Master in Sustainability at the University of Sydney. She is passionate about the transformative power of communication in meeting the challenges of the climate and biodiversity crises and enjoys working alongside a multidisciplinary team of strategists, researchers and external partners.
Hannah Regan - Project Officer
Hannah Regan is a Project Officer at the Sydney Environment Institute, where she oversees the Transformative Governance and Environmental Justice themes and manages external engagement.
She brings a wealth of experience in environmental communication, sustainability, and project management, with strong skills in stakeholder engagement, program development, and organisational efficiency.
Hannah graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management/Bachelor of Business from the University of Newcastle. She is passionate about driving impactful conservation efforts, fostering cross-sector collaborations, and driving change at scale.
Thanh Whittam - Finance Officer
Thanh Whittam manages the institute’s finances and assists with events and travel. Thanh’s diverse background makes her a valued member of SEI’s professional team. She is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she studied Secondary Education and Psychology and has worked in a diversity of sectors including property management, retail management and hospitality.
Thanh has an interest in biodiversity, the impact of climate change on Australia’s native wildlife and ensuring children have a sustainable future.
Suhasini Gunatillaka - Events and Administration Officer
Suhasini Gunatillaka provides event support to ensure SEI’s program of public talks and internal workshops run smoothly. She also manages the office space and member program.
Suhasini graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of International and Global Studies and Honours in English Literature and has a postgraduate qualification in counselling. She has a background primarily in the social services sector: in community housing in administration and project coordination, and in employment services as a counsellor.
Suhasini is passionate about increasing relational capacity and emotional processing in the climate movement and change-making spaces, particularly through group facilitation.
Catarina Agostino - Communication and Engagement Officer
Catarina Agostino is the Communications and Engagement Officer, spearheading the communication initiatives of SEI.
Catarina has a passion for effective communication and a background in strategic content creation. She has worked across many diverse roles and organisations, ranging from small businesses, not-for-profits, health and medical research, higher education, and government entities. Committed to impactful storytelling, Catarina has found a niche in research communications and knowledge exchange.
She graduated from the University of Wollongong with a First Class Honours degree in Communication and Media. Her honours thesis focused on the intersection of feminism, breast cancer, and marketing, and was adapted into a book chapter in The Cultural Politics of Femvertising: Selling Empowerment. Catarina has her sights set on a PhD in the future.