Scroll to: The Transitioning Australia Group Our board
Our team
We pride ourselves on attracting people with lived experience and expertise across all sectors at the intersection of climate, social justice, policy and economic change.
The Transitioning Australia Group
Wendy Farmer, Voices of the Valley
Dan Musil, Earthworker Cooperative
Julie Lyford OAM, former Mayor, local councillor and Registered Nurse
Ron Ipsen, Yallourn Power Station
Our board
Emily Gerrard
Emily is a Director and Principal Lawyer at Comhar Group Pty Limited, an Australian-based legal and policy advisory firm.
She is an environmental and climate change law specialist with extensive experience in native title, Indigenous land use agreements, renewable energy and environmental markets.
Emily works with ASX listed companies, First Nations peoples and organisations, governments and peak bodies. She advises on matters under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris Agreement, and she regularly attends party negotiations under the UNFCCC.
Emily is an Affiliated Expert with the UK Government’s UK PACT programme (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) and an expert member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). She is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia and holds Bachelor degrees in science and law (honours).
Emily is a keen photographer and an avid supporter of the Collingwood football club.
Wendy Farmer
Wendy is the President of Voices of the Valley, a community advocacy group that formed during the catastrophic 2014 Hazelwood brown coal mine fire in Victoria.
Voices of the Valley’s advocacy work has led to, notably, the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiries, as well as a number of awards for Environmental Justice and for Health Equity. Over time, Wendy’s focus has shifted to supporting her community to explore how the Valley can transition to a cleaner energy economy. She is a dedicated campaigner, media spokesperson, community advocate and public speaker, and is passionate about social justice, health and just transitions for communities all around Australia.
Professor John Wiseman
John Wiseman, our current Chair of the Board, is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and with the Climate and Energy College, University of Melbourne.
His other current roles include Adjunct Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Development and Climate Change Policy Adviser, Sustainability Victoria.
Colin Long
Colin Long is the Just Transitions Organiser at Victorian Trades Hall Council, Melbourne, Australia. He is also responsible for supporting Trades Hall’s work on cooperatives, and is a founder and Board member of Earthworker Cooperative, Power Australia (an energy retailer), and Hope Cooperative (a cooperative of young asylum seekers). He is a member of the Global Advisory Board of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, and several other national and international union climate change organisations.
Colin previously worked with young homeless people at risk of drug and sexual exploitation and from 1998-2010 he worked extensively in heritage preservation in Southeast Asia through the Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific at Deakin University. Colin was Victorian Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union from 2010 to 2018, and is a former Board member of VicSuper, and Chair of its Investment Committee.