Our staff & committee

Nic Fox, President

Nic (Warburton Environment) is a passionate advocate for the protection and restoration of forests in the Central Highlands. She works closely with the local Wurundjeri mob, strengthening relationships and working consciously as an ally to First Nations peoples.

Dr Sue Lewis, Vice President

Dr Sue Lewis has had a long career in environmental and sustainability education as well as a social change advocate through working for equality in densely masculine organisations. Sue is one of the founders of Women's Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) program, and is passionate about stopping the logging of native forests.

Mel Darer, Secretary

Mel (Friends of Alberton West) is a wildlife carer with over 20 years experience. For the last 10 years she has worked as a vet nurse. Mel is passionate about animals and wildlife and has been a longtime animal and LGBTQ rights activist.

Paul Macgregor, Treasurer

Paul (BEAM Mitchell Environment Group Inc) is the lead campaigner for BEAM’s Save the Tallarook Forest campaign, which has been running since 2020. He lives at Clearview Retreat centre on the edge of the Tallarook Forest and runs nature meditation retreats there.

Gayle Osborne

Gayle lives on a bush block in the Wombat State Forest and is a founding member of Wombat Forestcare Inc., which was instrumental in lobbying the state government for a Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) investigation into a number of state forests in the Wombat and Mt Cole areas. Wombat Forestcare is actively campaigning to halt the environmentally destructive VicForests' salvage works.

Jill Redwood

Jill (Environment East Gippsland) has been actively working to protect East Gippsland’s forests and wildlife for over 40 years and is long-time resident and campaigner in the Goongerah area.

Sue Ablitt

Sue (Save Our Strathbogie Forests) lives and works on unceded Taungurung country. She has been an advocate for nature, especially the conservation of forests and wild places, since the early 1980s. In recent years she has actively campaigned for the end of native forest logging in the Strathbogie Ranges. Sue is also a botanist, and works on native vegetation, land management and Landcare projects.

Rosemary Storey

Rosemary Storey (Kinglake Friends of the Forest) is a life-long environmentalist with a particular interest in forests and climate. She is a passionate defender of the forests of the Central Highlands.

Tuffy Morwitzer

Tuffy (Goongerah Environment Centre) has worked for 20 years across movements including with First Nations communities against the NT Intervention, refugees and asylum seekers against offshore processing and mandatory detention, local government aged care workers against privatisation, and now for the protection of East Gippsland's forests.

Lisa Roberts

Lisa Roberts (Friends of Bats and Habitat Gippsland) is a photographer and passionate advocate for the protection of forests from logging, as well as the impacts of planned burns. She is also part of flying-fox recovery and care in the Bairnsdale region. Photo credit: Annette Ruzicka

Chris Schuringa, Campaign Coordinator

Chris has been volunteering and working in the forest movement for nearly 5 years. She is passionate about community organising, grass-roots campaigning and getting out into the forest. She’s volunteered and worked for a number of different groups from across Victoria.

Phil Marshall, Citizen Science Project Coordinator

Phil has been a dedicated volunteer of Wildlife of the Central Highlands, spending many hours in the forests doing citizen science surveys for Leadbeater’s Possum, coordinating volunteers, writing reports, and doing data analysis.

Alana Mountain, Fundraising & Events Coordinator

Alana is a dedicated forest activist and writer, with a background in environmental science, who has been working and volunteering within the forest and climate movement for the last decade. She is passionate about bringing people together to celebrate forests as well as inspiring them to take meaningful action.

Emily Wood Trounce, Social Media Coordinator

Emily is a forest and climate activist from a social science background, whose research has primarily focused on guardianship and management models for rivers. She has extensive experience in writing, editing, and media work, and a deep love for Victoria's forests.

Mika Tran, Media and Communications Coordinator

Mika is a filmmaker and communications specialist with over 20 years’ experience telling multi-disciplinary stories across various sectors. Influenced by deep ecology and the earth-centred traditions of her Asian ancestry, Mika is passionate about working with narrative to inspire behaviour-change, advocate social values and shape the way people relate to the natural world.