Humanitarian Design Summit

Lara’s background is in mechanical and building services engineering, specialising in energy efficiency and passive design solutions for leading consultancy firms. As a Regenerative Development practitioner, Lara facilitates through her passion for living systems design, permaculture, and with respect of the Indigenous knowledge of place. Her work explores how projects, communities and environments emerge and evolve together.

Celia’s work focuses on project management, evaluation and impact measurement, and women’s economic empowerment. She’s worked in challenging contexts including Kenya and Papua New Guinea. Now based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, she is the co-founder and Managing Director of a social enterprise supporting women to scale their micro-businesses using a market-based approach to development. 

Andrew brings together his experience as an anthropologist and social entrepreneur to develop clean technology in developing markets. Andrew brings a high level of business acumen to his work and his approach is human centered, market led and data driven. His work has taken him across the world, to sub-saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. 

Lyndal is a dedicated community engagement, development and communications professional who has worked with regional and remote communities in Far North Queensland for over 20 years. She brings a diversity of experience to the program including work with refugee communities, disaster recovery and workshop facilitation with remote Cape York Aboriginal communities.

Claire is an experienced designer and engineer, with specialist skills in human-centred design, facilitation, innovation and stakeholder engagement. She has over 15 years of national and international experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She’s currently an Engineer in Residence at the Swinburne University Engineering Practice Academy.

With a background as an engineer, Ian has explored the interface between the technical and social side of engineering throughout his career. He has worked in Indonesia, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka with EWB and is currently researching the role of strength-based approaches supporting the motivations of community-based water committees in Malawi.

With a background in Sustainability Communications, Filmmaking and Journalism. James is passionate about the movement to creating a socially and ecologically sustainable world. He is currently teaching a Master’s of Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability in Sweden and writing his PhD researching the competencies and qualities required by individuals and groups to address the global challenges of sustainability. 

With more than 10 years’ experience, Tanja uses human-centred design to explore and solve complex social and societal challenges, from the unsustainability of urban sanitation services in Indonesia to informal employment in Montenegro. She holds a PhD in Sustainable Futures and is a Lecturer in Humanitarian Engineering at RMIT.

Matt Dorfstaetter is an international disaster management professional, specialised in the fields of business transformation, operational intelligence, risk/security management and humanitarian programming. Having worked and researched in various countries, he has a track record of embedding outcome-focused solutions, typically within the government sector and international non-profit organisations.