CitSciOzOnline: What Does It Mean To Be "Resilient"?
Channel: Australian Citizen Science Association
Date: 2020-10-26

The ‘What Does It Mean To Be Resilient’ coffee chat session was an informal discussion on resilience. 
Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness - but what does this mean in practice? This session explored resilience not only in terms of disaster preparedness and recovery but also in individual resilience. Led by our Patron, Dr. Geoff Garrett, the panelist explored what resilience is (or what it means to them) and how do we as individuals get better at it? Using the 2019-2020 bushfire season as a basis, the the concept of resiliency was explored from both a landscape and individual level. The session will also touched on leadership and its importance during challenging times. 

Participants in the What Does it Mean to be Resilient Session include:


Dr. Geoff Garrett -  ACSA Patron, former Queensland Chief Scientist and former Chief Executive of CSIRO


Dr Garrett is the former Queensland Chief Scientist (2011-2016) and has also led two of the world’s major national research and development organisations, CSIRO in Australia (2001 - 2008) and CSIR in South Africa (1995 - 2000). He currently lectures in leadership and change management and provides coaching support in these areas to academics and senior officers of the Australian Public Service. In addition to his role as Patron of ACSA, Dr Garrett is also Deputy Chair of the National Youth Science Forum. 




Jo White - Director, Science, Education, and Conservation, Australian Institute of Botanic Science, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney


Jo has over 25 years of State government experience operating at a senior officer level in the areas of science leadership, environmental management, policy development, and program delivery. She has contributed to creating over a million hectares of new national parks and led world-leading science in collaboration with CSIRO to understand the status of biodiversity in NSW. She has led successful science strategies designed to align science to deliver government and stakeholder priorities. She has created new capabilities in citizen science and social research. In her current role, she leads a large team who are establishing a new National Herbarium of NSW and leading Australia's biggest herbarium digitization program.




Adrian Turner - Chief Executive Officer, Minderoo Foundation Fire & Flood Resilience Initiative


Adrian is an experienced corporate leader with a strong track record of building innovative companies and organisations that tackle complex challenges. At the Minderoo Foundation, Adrian is CEO of the Fire Fund Initiative which was established in January 2020. This collaborative Initiative aims to see Australia become a global leader in fire and flood resilience by 2025. The initiative is also working with communities to help them respond and recover from the devastating 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. In addition to his responsibilities at the Minderoo Foundation Adrian co-chairs AustCyber, the national Program to build a vibrant domestic cybersecurity industry. 
Prior to joining the Minderoo Foundation, Adrian was the founding CEO of CSIRO’s Data61, the data and digital specialist arm of Australia’s national science agency. He previously spent 18 years in Silicon Valley and was a co-founder of Borondi Group, co-founder and CEO of Mocana Corporation, had profit and loss responsibility for Philips Electronics connected devices infrastructure, and was Chairman of the Board for Australia’s ex-pat network, Advance.org. Adrian is an avid reader and writer with deep interests in AI, data economics, and biosecurity, as well as an artist. He graduated from UTS and completed the Executive Program for Managing Growth Companies at Stanford University and authored the book "BlueSky Mining – Building Australia’s Next Billion Dollar Industries".