Profiling Disaster Risk Handbook working group members: Lynley, Russell, Beck and Brendan
Lynley Hocking
Lynley is the project manager for Tasmania's state disaster risk assessment project. This partnership project between the Tasmanian State Emergency Service and the University of Tasmania brings together stakeholders to explore systemic exposures and vulnerabilities through scenarios that 'stress test’ existing arrangements across sectors and communities.
Lynley was previously project manager for the Tasmanian Disaster Resilience Strategy and the State Emergency Management Committee’s Strategic Directions Framework 2020-2025 and supported state governance arrangements to prioritise, plan, monitor and evaluate disaster resilience measures.
Dr Russell Wise
Russell is a Principal Sustainability Economist at CSIRO in Canberra. Over the last 15 years Russ has led interdisciplinary teams and R&D programs focused on co-designing and implementing values-based pathways approaches to diagnosing and managing complex challenges in climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Russ has delivered projects in Australia, Indonesia, PNG and South Africa. Russ was seconded to the National Resilience Taskforce in 2017-18 where he led the development of the Guidance on Strategic Climate and Disaster Risk. He is currently leading a national initiative to help address deficits in investments in adaptation and DRR in Australia.
Beck Dawson
Described as the “person paid to worry about Sydney”, Beck leads the Resilient Sydney program and implementation of the first Resilient Sydney Strategy – an urban resilience roadmap for metropolitan Sydney. Collaboration projects in the strategy involve 33 metropolitan councils and their communities to build local responses to global and city system challenges from shocks and stresses.
Beck has a background in strategic systems change programs for resilience and sustainability across government, business and the cultural sector in Australia and the UK. Beck holds a Masters in Sustainable Architecture and a Bachelor of Science with Honours.
Brendan Moon
Brendan Moon is the CEO of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA), Queensland’s permanent disaster recovery organisation He leads the strategic direction of QRA, which includes the efficient and effective coordination of natural disaster reconstruction efforts across Queensland with administrative responsibility for more than $15.7 billion in restoration and recovery funding under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA), Disaster Relief Funding Arrangements (DRFA) and the State Disaster Relief Arrangements.
Brendan led QRA’s Operations for Tropical Cyclones Oswald and Marcia, and state-wide reconstruction and recovery efforts from all significant natural disasters in Queensland since late 2015 including Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017, the Central Queensland Bushfires in 2018, the North and Far North Queensland monsoon trough flooding event in early 2019 and the Queensland Bushfires of late 2019.
Brendan is also the State Recovery Policy and Planning Coordinator. This standing role’s purpose is to lead recovery planning, policy and recovery capability development to ensure better preparedness of government agencies and the community for recovery operations.
He is a regular contributor to national and international dialogue on disaster risk and resilience and has addressed the United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction’s Asian Ministerial Conferences on multiple occasions.
Learn more about progress on the Disaster Risk Handbook here.