Invited Speakers
Check back for more invited speakers to be added soon.
Sian Crowley
Winner of the Ecology in Action Award 2025
Sian has been involved in conservation education for over a decade and has engaged with tens of thousands of students and community members across the country, from toddlers to adults. She has had several roles in ecological education, including Kids Greening Taupo, BLAKE and the Climate Action Campus Ōtautahi. In her role at BLAKE, Sian established environmental programmes in Christchurch, providing resources and professional development for teachers, and delivering programmes in schools including the BLAKE Virtual Reality underwater programmes and BLAKE Explorers pilot programmes.
She had a large impact in her voluntary role at Forest & Bird Youth (2017-2023); founding the Wellington youth hub and co-directing the national leadership team. She has also held voluntary roles as National Executive Officer with the NZ Association for Environmental Education and was a member of the Jane Goodall Institute Youth Council in 2017.
More recently, Sian has established The Seed Pod, a social enterprise aimed at increasing our collective connections with nature through immersive storytelling, collaborative education and artistic expression. Sian has created a range of educational resources in collaboration with illustrators, delivers education and community events, and a highly successful podcast.
Andrew Jeffs
Winner of the Te Tohu Taiao Award 2025
Andrew is one of Aotearoa's eminent marine biologists. Early in his career, Andrew trained in journalism and became the science and environment reporter for the NZ Herald, highlighting the plight of native species. During his time at the Department of Conservation, Andrew was responsible for establishing new marine protected areas around the country. Since completing his PhD on shellfish ecology, Andrew has published more than 365 peer-reviewed articles. His research over many years has contributed to the management of fisheries and marine reserves in Aotearoa.
Andrew has been a pioneer in the research field of underwater sound, which has opened our ears to the secret lives of marine organisms. Andrew's extensive mussel ecology research has underpinned mussel reef restoration in Aotearoa; his collaboration with community group 'Revive our Gulf' has become the largest mussel restoration in the world. Pivotal research collaborations with mana whenua has seen mātauranga Māori embedded into restoration practice through the use of native plant fibres for mussel seeding ropes. Andrew has supervised more than 90 post graduate students, has a passion for science communication and education, and acts as a scientific expert in fisheries and sand mining court hearings.
Melanie Mark-Shadbolt
Melanie Mark-Shadbolt (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, Te Arawa (Ngāti Kearoa Ngāti Tuarā), Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Raukawa (Ngāti Huia), Rangitane (Hurunui-o-Rangi), Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa) is a Māori environmentalist and the Chief Executive of Te Tira Whakamātaki, a growing network of Māori practitioners working across biosecurity, biodiversity, and emergency management. Her work sits at the frontline of some of Aotearoa NZ’s most pressing environmental challenges, where the stakes are high and the answers are rarely simple.
She brings together science, mātauranga Māori, and community-led action to protect native species, safeguard culturally significant seeds, and strengthen responses to biosecurity threats and climate-driven disasters. Melanie is known for asking uncomfortable questions - like why we continue trying to fix environmental crises with the same systems that created them, and why Indigenous knowledge is still treated as optional when the evidence suggests otherwise. Her work challenges conventional approaches, advocating for Indigenous leadership and system transformation as essential to building resilience, not just for ecosystems, but for the communities connected to them. She believes we are well past the point of small adjustments. What is needed now is a fundamental shift in how we understand our relationship with the natural world, and perhaps a little less certainty from those who think they already have all the answers.
Contact
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