FOUNDERS
FABIAN DATTNER
Fabian Dattner is well known to many Australians. She is founding partner of Dattner Group, highly regarded leadership experts. Dattner Group include Compass, a national leadership initiative for women, Kacha, a national recruitment initiative for women in technology, and Re:think, a transformational leadership consultancy. Fabian is widely recognised for her commitment to helping from board to basement. She’s a speaker, educator and social entrepreneur, and a regular commentator in the media on leadership and ethical issues in the world today, and on the role of women in building a sustainable future. She has won many awards for her work. Fabian is dreamer and co-founder of Homeward Bound.
DR JUSTINE SHAW
Dr Justine Shaw is a is a Senior Research Fellow at Securing Antarctic Environmental Futures at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Justine is a leading Australian Antarctic researcher who is best known for her conservation work on subantarctic islands and Antarctic conservation science. She is interested in understanding the way in which species interact with each other and how this shapes ecosystems. Justine is currently examining the impacts of humans on Antarctica and how we can better protect it, and how island ecosystems respond to pest eradications to inform conservation decision making.
Justine has a large global research network, having worked in Australia, South Africa, sub-Antarctic/Antarctic and the Arctic. She has been ‘going south’ for over 20 years and is passionate about expedition science, having spent many hours in the snow, wind and rain with a pack on her back. Through her research and engagement, she hopes to further conservation of these last true wilderness areas.
Justine is chair of the SCAR Action group on Integrated Science for the sub-Antarctic, an executive member of the Australian Academy of Science, Early Mid-Career Research Forum, a subject editor for several scientific journals and co-founder of the Women in Polar Science Network.
PROF MARY-ANNE LEA
Prof Mary-Anne Lea is a polar marine ecologist whose research focuses on the influence of climate change and variability within the marine environment on the behaviour, distribution and conservation of birds and marine mammals, in the Southern Ocean, Alaska and Australia. She has participated in over 20 remote expeditions and voyages to study marine mammals and seabirds. Currently, Mary-Anne is a Professor in the Ecology and Biodiversity Centre at the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania. Mary-Anne has worked with researchers all over the globe and across systems (sub-Antarctic/Antarctic, sub-Arctic Alaska and North Pacific and temperate).
She is a strong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusivity in all walks of life, and is happiest when collaborating with others and studying animal behaviour. She is a member of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) CCAMLR delegation, the SCAR Expert Group of Birds and Marine Mammals and also co-founded the Women in Polar Science Network. You can connect with Mary-Ann via LinkedIn and Twitter.
DR JESS MELBOURNE-THOMAS
Dr Jess Melbourne-Thomas is Transdisciplinary Researcher and Knowledge Broker in the marine ecosystem modelling and risk assessment group based at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere in Hobart and the 2020 Tasmanian Australian of the Year. She has a PhD in Quantitative Marine Science from the University of Tasmania and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford from 2003 – 2005. Jess has a passion for the marine environment, which extends well beyond the office – she is a keen scuba diver and dive instructor and has had the privilege of being part of a research team in Antarctica. Representing a new breed in leadership, Jess was also integral to forming a group known as Women in Polar Science. This group is supporting each other and other women scientists across the world and worked in partnership with Homeward Bound to get the project started between 2014 – 2016.
Jess left Homeward Bound in 2017 to have a family and pursue her career. She continues to be a friend of the initiative.