“Rethinking Crises – Achieving Resilience in a Post-COVID world”
ABOUT THIS EVENT
On Wednesday 14 September 2022, IPAA Queensland was proud to host a diverse panel of experts who shared their experiences and perspectives on a challenging conversation. The discussion was skillfully led by Dr Anne Tiernan, provoking thoughts from the panelists: Alistair Dawson (Inspector General Emergency Management), Professor Cheryl Desha (Griffith University) and Collin Sivalingum (Australian Red Cross).
Part of our Challenger Seminar Series, the conversation discussed the crises and disasters that have punctuated the work of public service and public purpose organisations, particularly in the past few years.
Events such as the bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and floods across Queensland and New South Wales, required adaptive responses from governments at all levels, and at times required unprecedented policy decisions.
Public purpose organisations stretched their capacities beyond previous bounds to serve their customers and communities across Queensland (indeed the world) and continued to see their resilience and compliance tested.
READ our wrap up of the event on the IPAA blog here.
IPAA members can also view the full recording of the event on their member portal.
ABOUT OUR PANEL
‘The Inspector-General’ – Alistair Dawson
On 6 February 2020, Alistair was appointed Queensland’s Inspector-General of Emergency Management. Alistair has a keen passion for disaster management, working with our key partners to drive continuous improvement in Queensland’s disaster preparedness, planning, response and recovery. He brings over 40 years’ policing experience in both London and Queensland to the role as Inspector-General. More than 38 years of Alistair’s career in police and emergency management, has been spent right here in Queensland.
Alistair started as a general duties police officer in Brisbane in 1982 and went on to become one Queensland’s most senior police officers, serving as an Inspector in the CHOGM group, Chief Superintendent at the G20 Group, Police Commander for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He was appointed Assistant Commissioner for the Operations Support Command in 2013, Assistant Commissioner for the Central Region in 2015 and Assistant Commissioner for People Capability Command in 2018. As a former Chair of the State Disaster Coordination Group, Alistair has played a lead role in coordinating the whole of government response to several complex disaster events across the State.
Alistair holds a Master of Business Administration, an Executive Master Public Administration, a Graduate Diploma of Executive Leadership and a Diploma of Public Safety (Police Search and Rescue Coordination). Alistair is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a graduate of the Leadership in Counter Terrorism (LinCT) Program. In 2010, he was awarded the Australian Police Medal, Alistair also has been awarded the National Emergency Medal for Queensland 2010-2011 and a bar for TC Debbie 2017.
In 2021, Alistair was appointed as an Adjunct Professor within the Centre for Environment and Population Health, School of Medicine and Dentistry at Griffith University.
As Queensland’s Inspector-General of Emergency Management, Alistair is committed to working with the disaster management sector to ensure ongoing co-design, collaboration and cooperation between local, state, interstate and federal agencies.
‘The Engineer’ – Professor Cheryl Desha
Cheryl Desha is Professor and Theme Leader for the Cities Research Institute’s ‘Digital Earth and Resilient Infrastructure’ research agenda (12 academics, 13 PhD candidates), and Engagement Director (Industry) for the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University. She also co-leads Queensland’s Disaster Management Research Alliance of seven universities. Cheryl was awarded Engineers Australia’s Queensland’s Professional Engineer of the Year in 2021 and in 2020 was awarded the Queensland Government’s Individual Champion of Change Award by the Inspector General Emergency Management.
With the reality that “everything is connected and ‘where’ is critical to thriving, now and into the future”, Cheryl is working towards resilient and regenerative cities through enabling evidence-based decision-making that is locally relevant. This involves industry and government partnerships to deliver right-time and right-place decision support, within the context of disaster management.
Cheryl’s research journey has been inspired by the Cynefin Framework approach to decision making (by David Snowden), and Socio-technical Transition Theory (by Frank Geels). She also draws upon her technical training in nature-inspired (biomimetic), nature-loving (biophilic) and place-based (digital-spatial) design.
Cheryl is a Fellow and Chartered Member of Engineers Australia (FIEAust CPEng NER EngExec), and is a member of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI). She is a Council member of the International Society of Digital Earth (ISDE) where she co-leads Working Group 2 ‘Industry Partnerships’. She is an Advisory Board member of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), where she sits on the Disasters and Private Sector Network working groups.
‘The Communities Professional’ – Collin Sivalingum
Collin Sivalingum is State Emergency Services Manager, Red Cross Queensland. He is a trained member of the International Federation of Red Cross – Field Assessment Coordinating Team, responsible for field assessment to determine response and recovery strategy after a disaster. He is also a Preparedness for Effective Response facilitator for the International Federation of Red Cross.
Collin has extensive management consultancy and project management experience and has worked in most countries in Africa and all countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and parts of Europe including humanitarian and aid work with highly displaced communities. Colin is an Incident Commander for Red Cross Emergency Operations, as well as a Board Member for CASSI – a disability support organisation that supports clients in Queensland and New South Wales; is a founding member and President of Woodlands Community Inc; and is Chair of the National Taskforce for Creative Recovery.
ABOUT OUR MODERATOR
Dr Anne Tiernan is one of Australia’s leading political scientists. Her research focuses on the work of governing. Dr Tiernan has published extensively in Australia and internationally, including most recently The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics (co-edited with Professor Jenny Lewis, 2021).
Anne’s career at the interface of strategy, research, appointments policy and practice has been devoted to improving public policy and public purpose outcomes. Now Managing Director of mission-led consultancy firm Constellation Impact Advisory, Anne consults regularly to organisations committed to purpose and positive impact. An Adjunct Professor with Griffith University, and previously a member of the University’s senior leadership team, Anne served as inaugural Dean (Engagement) of the Griffith Business School,
Anne is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, and a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and has held a range of Board appointments.
This event was made possible with the support of our sponsor
About IPAA Queensland
IPAA Queensland advances the professionalism, capability and integrity of public administration and public purpose work and promotes pride in service.
If you’re a public servant or engaged in public purpose work, we encourage you to get to know and connect with IPAA Queensland. Find out more about us by reading more on our site or through joining as a member here.
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