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Olivia Bailey is a Research Officer at The Next Economy. She brings to the team her research abilities and extensive experience working on policy development. In her recent position in the Net Zero Economy Taskforce, she was responsible for researching international and domestic examples of regional transition and providing advice to the Taskforce Executive on key learnings and recommended approaches to inform the design of the Net Zero Authority.
Through desktop research and stakeholder engagement she considered how climate change, environmental sustainability, social support, energy transition planning, and macroeconomic conditions will impact regions, and the tools available to address challenges and maximise opportunities.
During her time working in the Commonwealth Government Olivia developed and analysed policy proposals and external events and coordinated feedback from government departments to provide strategic advice to Ministers.
Having a broad awareness of issues and government objectives allows Olivia to better understand how new policies can address gaps in support and align with other work happening, not only across Commonwealth and state and territory governments, but amongst all stakeholders including the private sector and non-government organisations.
An Architect by background, Jacqui draws on over 15 years of experience working in the private and for-purpose sectors in Australia and South-East Asia, across the fields of sustainable built environments, social innovation, capacity building, community development, organisational and enterprise development, climate resilient development and disaster resilience. She has held leadership and management roles at Harmer Architecture, GHD Design and Engineering, Engineers without Borders Australia, Kindred Spirits Enterprises and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR). She has also acted as an independent consultant and project lead on several government and not-for-profit sector initiatives that seek to create social and environmental impact and strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities.
Jacqui is passionate about creating powerful collaborations and mobilising people to use their unique skills, knowledge, resources and networks to tackle complex challenges and create positive change.
Amanda is the CEO of The Next Economy. She has spent over two decades working with inspiring people across Australia, Asia and the Pacific to create positive change on issues as diverse as economic development, public health, gender equality and climate adaptation.
The focus of her work at The Next Economy is to support communities, government, industry and others to develop a more resilient, just and regenerative economy. Most of this work involves supporting regional communities in Australia to strengthen their economies by embracing the transition to zero emissions. She is also widely sought after as a presenter and media commentator and has appeared in a number of books and films including the film 2040.
Amanda completed her PhD at the Australian National University on participatory action research approaches to economic development in the Philippines. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at The University of Queensland, an Industry Fellow at the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney, and a 2020 Churchill Fellow.
Lizzie is Head of Programs at The Next Economy.
Lizzie is a social business leader and entrepreneur. She has 20 years of experience leading start-up organisations and teams in the non-profit and social enterprises sectors across Australia and South-East Asia. Her background in environmental engineering, means that Lizzie brings a practical and systems-based approach to her work, which she combines with a deep commitment to building highly motivated and effective teams.
Lizzie’s core skill set includes: organisational leadership and governance, enterprise design and business model development, strategic planning, partnership brokering, business development and fundraising. During the past two years, a significant portion of Lizzie’s work has been with First Nations entrepreneurs establishing new businesses to create meaningful, on-country employment.
Lizzie has held CEO positions with Kindred Spirits Enterprises and Engineers Without Borders Australia. She also has significant experience as a voluntary director with various social enterprises and non-profit boards including xpand Foundation, FREO2 Foundation, ATEC, Robogals, Co-Design Studio and The Next Economy. Lizzie’s contribution to humanitarian engineering has been recognised as a winner in The Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. She is a Churchill Fellow and was named in the Engineers Media Top 100 List of Australia’s Most Influential Engineers in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Katherine is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and also WEAll Scotland, its Scottish hub.
She is writer-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Futures Institute and a Strategic Advisor to Australia’s Centre for Policy Development. She sits on a range of boards and advisory groups such as The Democracy Collaborative, the C40 Centre for Urban Climate Policy and Economy, and the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity.
She is a New Economics Senior Fellow at the ZOE Institute, a Fellow of The Leaders Institute and a Distinguished Fellow of the Schumacher Institute. She has over eight years’ experience in various roles with Oxfam GB, where she developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index and led Oxfam’s work on downscaling the ‘doughnut’ for various national contexts.
Katherine instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) – comprising Scotland, New Zealand, Finland, Wales, Iceland, and Canada. She was Rapporteur for Club de Madrid’s Working Group on Shared Societies and Sustainability, was a member of the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Renewal Advisory Group, and Zero Waste Scotland’s Demystifying Decoupling Advisory Group.
Michał is a Project Officer at The Next Economy.
Michal recently completed his PhD at Griffith University in the field of environmental humanities and he is a passionate researcher of restorative and regenerative land practices.
Michal has extensive fieldwork experience with farmers and community practitioners in Europe, South America and Australia. This work has enabled Michal to gain a deep understanding and hands-on experience with a broad range of issues and practices in diverse geopolitical and climatic contexts.
Michał’s story-telling work at the intersection of the ethnographic and environmental film has been recognised and screened internationally, including invitations to participate at Vienna Biennale for Change 2021 and the 23rd Sydney Biennale in 2022.
Lisa is a Senior Project Officer at The Next Economy. She is energetic and practical with a passion for supporting a zero emissions transition in a way that delivers real social, economic and environmental benefits to regional Australia.
She brings a background in community and regional development, local government, project and event management, social research and small business ownership. In addition to her role at The Next Economy, Lisa works with the Climate Justice Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney on the trans-national ‘Decarbonising Electricity’ project.
Lisa was a Port Augusta City Councillor during the surprise closure of the Playford and Northern coal power stations and knows first hand what this means for regional communities. She was also a key community leader in the well-known ‘Repower Port Augusta’ campaign that sought a ‘just’ energy transition for the town. In 2017 she was co-winner of the Jill Hudson Award for Environmental Protection by the Conservation Council of South Australia.
Sandi is the Impact Fund Manager at The Next Economy, drawing on over 20 years’ experience managing government and for-purpose businesses in the sustainability leadership and renewable energy sector. Sandi believes passionately in human potential, and works with individuals, organisations and communities to create a brighter future.
With expertise in transformative program design and delivery, coaching and organisational capacity building, leadership development, community engagement, strategic foresight and stakeholder relations, she is a dynamic and skilled operator.
Sandi has held managerial positions with Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation, Enova Community Energy, Centre for Sustainability Leadership and Byron Shire Council. She also has significant experience as a board director with various social enterprise and non-profit boards including Human Nature Adventure Therapy, The Next Economy and With Nature.
Sandi threads her rich knowledge of leadership, mindfulness, nature reconnection and sustainability through all that she does.
