Project Team

Project Leadership

Project leader: Hazel Parry is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO A&F, with over 14 years of R&D experience in agricultural pest management and biosecurity. Hazel has extensive experience in participating in, and for the past six years in leading, complex multi-agency and multi-disciplinary projects.

CSIRO Team:

Abebayehu Geffersa is a Research Scientist at CSIRO A&F. His research integrates farming systems and economic modelling to assess the adoption of agricultural innovations and sustainable farming practices across diverse production systems. Abebayehu’s work with Pest-READI focuses on identifying viable and cost-effective pathways for sustainable pest management.

Alex Mustakov is a User Experience and Digital Product Designer focused on creating user-targeted tools that make CSIRO’s science more accessible. He applies human-centered design and co-design methodologies to PestREADI: to drive tool adoption, to support growers and foster to practice change.

Andrew Hulthen is a Senior Research Technician in the Agroecology Team in A&F. Andy’s research interests lie in electronic data collection, spatial data analysis, and building interactive data analysis and visualisation dashboards.

Anna Marcora is a Research Technician with the Agroecology Team in A&F. Anna’s research predominately involves invertebrate communities in farming systems.

Barton Loechel is a social researcher in Environment with broad experience investigating a range of rural and regional topics, including integrated pest management, pathogens, biotechnology and agricultural innovation systems.

Byron Kearns is an environmental management expert with over 20 years’ experience in strategic planning, extension, and innovation across Northern Queensland and Victoria. He supports the Catalysing Australia’s Biosecurity Initiative to future-proof the national biosecurity system and coordinates the Friends of Pest READI steering committee.

Mohamed Zakeel Mohamed Cassim is a Research Scientist with A&F specializing in developing integrated disease management strategies to control plant diseases by providing valuable insights into sustainable IPM.

Paul Melloy specializes in transforming pest and disease risk models into spatial decision-support tools to simplify on-farm decision-making. In his role with Pest READI, he will be co-developing online platforms that help farming communities optimize landscape management and boost beneficial insect populations, reducing chemical use and enhancing farm resilience.

Simon Fielke is an experienced social researcher from Environment working on agricultural innovation, rural social research and socio-technological change internationally. He provides expertise and leadership into inter- and transdisciplinary projects and programmes of research that aim to increase the sustainability and resilience of agricultural industries and land management systems.

Tracey Steinrucken is a Plant Disease Research Scientist with Health & Biosecurity. She’s worked in pastoral, horticultural and environmental settings in invasion biology and plant health. Within Pest READI, Tracey fulfills the role of innovation facilitator, responsible for coordinating discussions with stakeholders in the Northern Rivers.

Zelalem Moti is an A&F Research Scientist in agricultural innovation. Zelalem’s role in Pest READI is innovation broker, driving stakeholder engagement, including indigenous communities, to establish a community of practice to foster innovation.

Past CSIRO team members:

Sharon Downes was the Group Leader of the Biotic Interactions group in the Systems Program of CSIRO A&F. She has managed projects across Australia that involved extensive customer engagements including with industry stakeholders. Sharon was the ‘project sponsor’ for Pest READI which included oversight of the national steering committee

Gillian Cornish was an Environment Postdoctoral Fellow in the Knowledge Commons Project in the Valuing Sustainability FSP. Gillian used the PestREADI project as a case study for her research, which was about knowledge exchange in agrifood transitions.

Sandeep Dhakal was a CERC Fellow with the Agroecology team in A&F, with a background in computer science and computational social modelling. During his tenure, Sandeep was tasked with developing a range of digital tools relating to Pest READI.

NSW DPIRD:

Saleh Adnan is Research Entomologist and an applied Agriculturist with 10 years of research experience in multiple horticultural crops working to achieve improved agricultural production system and deploying modern pest management technologies. Saleh works directly with growers and advisors in the Northern Rivers Region as part of his role with NSW DPIRD.

Jagun Aboriginal Alliance:

Oliver Costello is Bundjalung man from the northern rivers of NSW, with a diverse range of personal and professional expertise in culturally connected stewardship of Country. Oliver is currently focused on First Nations knowledge and practice in caring for Country through regenerative cultural practices that support preparedness, recovery and resilience.

David Hinchley is the Strategy and Engagement lead at Jagun. David brings extensive experience in community-based resource management across Nepal, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Palau, and Australia. He held key roles with The Nature Conservancy, Carpentaria Land Council, and IUCN, focusing on Indigenous land management, conservation, and sustainable forestry.

Ava Jarrett, a proud Gumbaynggirr woman, works as a Project Officer and Action Researcher at Jagun Alliance on the Pest READI project.  Through this project Ava seeks to support community perspectives on Healthy Country and set them in dialogue with scientific knowledge systems to support new/old ways of ecological decision-making that are grounded in Caring for Country.

To find out more about the Jagun Aboriginal Alliance Corporation, visit their website

Macquarie University Team Members:

Nicholas Harrigan is Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Sociology at Macquarie University. His major areas of research include social networks, particularly networks of conflict; low wage migrant workers in Australia and Asia; and participatory approaches to social research.

Hangyoung Lee‘s research areas span social inequality, social stratification and mobility, economic sociology, and social networks. He addresses these issues in two substantive research areas: social capital and the one percent of either income or wealth distributions.

Andrew McGregor is a human geographer who studies innovative responses to global environmental change in Australia and Southeast Asia. His current focus is on societal transitions towards more sustainable, ethical and just food systems. Andrew works with concepts from political ecology and transitions research.

Sunita Chaudhary

Growcom:

Scott Wallace has been the manager and principle designer of Growcom’s “Hort360” best management practice (BMP) program since 2003, bringing a wealth of experience in developing and delivering BMP structures to better assist growers manage risk and implement opportunities to further develop their business.

To find out about Growcom and Hort 360, visit their website.