The Indo Pacific Cooperation Network

Iuma Bani began his professional career as a high school science teacher, also taking on administrative responsibilities. In 2019, he pursued further studies in environmental science with a focus on hydrometeorology at the University of Tsukuba. Recognising the urgent need for coastal management in his home country, he is now undertaking a second master’s degree in environmental science, specialising in coastal marine management at the University of Western Australia.

His career includes significant roles, such as Principal Scientific Officer at the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department, where he led public and commercial weather forecasting services. As a Weather Forecaster, producing essential forecasts and warnings became a core part of his work.

With an academic background in mathematics and physics and practical teaching experience, Iuma brings a comprehensive approach to environmental science. He places strong emphasis on collaboration and community engagement, actively participating in youth organisations, athletics, and music—demonstrating a well-rounded and cooperative ethos.

Rebekah Baynard-Smith is a consultant with Canberra-based international development firm Sustineo, working with NGOs, governments and UN agencies across the Indo-Pacific in the fields of climate resilience, WASH, labour migration and more. Prior to this, Rebekah worked as a disaster resilience and community development practitioner, supporting communities across Victoria and New South Wales to build preparedness to bushfires and other natural and man-made hazards. Rebekah was part of the Victorian Government’s award-winning Community Based Bushfire Management team, and designed and launched the innovative “Get Techy, Get Ready” program. She has also coordinated programs for Australian social enterprise Resilient Ready, focusing on building business resilience with tourism operators, agribusinesses, Councils and not-for-profit/community organisations.

Outside of work, Rebekah volunteers for the Nusa Tenggara Association supporting their income generation, education and disaster relief projects in Eastern Indonesia. She speaks Indonesian and is heavily involved in the Australia-Indonesia community across Canberra and Melbourne.

Rebekah is passionate about working with culture to build an Indo-Pacific that is ready for the new era of compounding disasters.

Mark Daza is a Project and Communications Manager at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), Harvard University’s academic and research center in humanitarian crisis and leadership. Mark has been leading strategic communications and social science research on disaster preparedness and climate resilience in the Philippines under HHI’s Program on Resilient Communities. Before joining HHI, Mark worked as a media producer, writer, and researcher for ABS-CBN Corporation. He devoted most of his journalism career to producing documentaries and specials on television and digital platforms that chronicled the struggles and triumphs of people afflicted with social problems. His stories focused on human rights, poverty, children’s rights and welfare, public health, education, labor and migration, and gender equality, among others.

Mark has also written for various organizations, such as the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Pioneers Post, the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, and the ASEAN Business Advisory Council. His writing, which primarily focused on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and solutions journalism, earned him a Social Enterprise Journalism Fellowship from the British Council in 2016, and a Climate Journalism Fellowship from Climate Tracker and Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in 2020. In 2021, the Thomson Reuters Foundation named him one of the global Changemakers committed to developing solutions to pressing human rights challenges such as climate change, socio-economic inclusion, and media freedom.

Mark obtained his BA in Communication Arts from the University of Santo Tomas.

Lina is an experienced environmental professional, deeply committed to sustainable natural resource practices and indigenous community empowerment through conservation. She has vast experience in managing and coordinating conservation programs and activities in the Solomon Islands. Her career includes significant roles like Project Manager for the Forest Value Enhancement Project at Live and Learn Solomon Islands and Project Coordinator for Protected Areas at Ecological Solutions Solomon Islands.

At the time of her participation in the Indo-Pacific Cooperation Network, Lina was pursuing a Master of Environmental Science at the University of Western Australia. Specifically, in Environmental Management with focus on GIS. She is the recipient of the Ed Smith Leadership Award through the Australia Awards. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma of Science (Environmental Geoscience) and a Bachelor of Science (Environmental Science) from the University of the South Pacific.

Her aspiration is to inspire and influence a collective commitment to preserving that natural beauty and resources of the Solomon Islands, ensuring a thriving and sustainable future.

Franzisca Doser is Group Welfare Manager for the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office. Previously, she was an Emergency Management Lead at Health New Zealand; her role is responsible for coordinating and strengthening disaster resilience, readiness, response and recovery capability of the Canterbury district’s health system.

As an early-career professional who graduated with her Master’s degree in 2020, Franzisca has a deep appreciation for the relationship between applied science and research, and implications for practice and policy. Before becoming an emergency manager, Franzisca worked to support the recovery of the families, survivors, and witnesses from the Christchurch terrorist attacks. Her time in this role enabled her to gain an in-depth understanding of the systems that make up the unique way in which New Zealand government agencies and community-led initiatives collaborated to responded to complex human needs post-calamity.

Franzisca’s career in the Civil Defence Emergency Management space started at Christchurch City Council, where she worked as Community Resilience Coordinator and later Welfare Manager. Her response experiences include deployments to support Auckland and Hawke’s Bay in coordinating their district level responses to Cyclone Gabrielle.

Franzisca is convinced that international collaboration is needed to further the capabilities of emergency managers – not only from an organisational perspective, but more importantly on behalf of the communities she serves.

Marcolino Gonçalves Aleixo holds a degree in Atmospheric Science and Meteorology from the State University of São Paulo (Universidade Estadual Paulista), Brazil, completed in 2018. He has experience in geoscience, with expertise in climate system analysis, data science, climate change, maritime and weather forecasting, environmental issues, disaster risk reduction, early warning systems, agroforestry, drought monitoring, and severe weather events such as tropical cyclones, strong winds, thunderstorms, and fire alerts. He also engages in anticipatory action planning. With over four years of professional experience, he has worked with the Meteorology Office in Timor-Leste, the European Union Delegation, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Dr Aysha Jennath holds a Ph.D. in urban planning from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in Bengaluru. At IIHS, she participates in various collaborative research projects aimed at understanding and addressing the multifaceted challenges of climate migration and climate adaptation in Southeast Asia, working with colleagues in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and UK.

Aysha has conducted extensive research on coastal climate change in India, examining both the physical and social impacts across diverse and vulnerable landscapes, including the Lakshadweep Archipelago. Her doctoral thesis focused on the diverse population mobility responses to climate change in coastal regions, encompassing migration, immobility, and planned relocation, with a strong emphasis on the role of government and public policy in managing climate challenges. Her work also included developing innovative methodologies for climate change hazard modeling in coastal areas.

Daisuke Kageyama is a researcher in the volcano and debris flow research team at the Public Works Research Institute in Japan. Daisuke has seven years of experience working in the government sector, both in the central government and local government, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the Hyogo Prefectural Government. Daisuke specializes in building a resilient and sustainable society through data-driven approaches with statistical analysis skills, civil engineering expertise, and deep insight into natural disasters. Daisuke grew up at the foot of Mt.Fuji in Fuji City, Shizuoka, where people live amid the risks of mega earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, which made him decide to devote his life to creating a resilient and sustainable society for the future generation. In his free time, Daisuke likes to read novels and telemark ski in the mountains. Daisuke earned his bachelor’s in Forest Science, specializing in erosion control engineering, from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, and his master’s in Public Policy, specializing in policy analysis and urban science and sustainable development, from the University of Chicago, Chicago, USA.

Stephen McHugh currently serves as a program officer at the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA). At JCIE/USA Stephen manages a diverse array of programs that examine US-Japan cooperation on key global issues, including on promoting healthy aging and supporting democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region. He also helps run several US-Japan legislative exchange programs, including a US Congressional Staff Exchange program. In his work promoting healthy and active aging, Stephen has a specific interest in how policy can properly account for and protect older people, particularly in the face of disasters, including natural disasters, climate-change related extreme weather events, and pandemics.

Prior to joining JCIE/USA Stephen spent two years teaching English at a public high school in Tokyo through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET). Following this experience, he went on to serve as a JET Program Coordinator at the Embassy of Japan in Washinton DC, where he managed the application process for all US applicants to the program. Stephen was born and raised in London but moved to the United States to study at The University of Chicago, where he obtained a BA in English Literature.

Mercy Moraa Nyanchoga, originally from Kenya, has a clinical background and has practiced as a general practitioner in various settings, including private and public hospitals. Her work in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, one of the largest refugee camps in the world, ignited her passion for migrant and refugee health and her advocacy for health equity and systemic change- from both a systemic and community perspective.

Moraa moved to Australia six years ago to pursue a Master’s degree in Advanced Health Services Management at Griffith University. Since then, she has volunteered and worked in numerous roles focused on multicultural health in Queensland. Recently, she served as the State-wide Coordinator for the CALD COVID Health Engagement Project (CCHEP) at Mater Hospital. This project, funded by QLD Health, aimed to support and collaborate with multicultural communities and organisations across Queensland during the pandemic.

Currently, Moraa works as a Principal Policy Officer in the System Policy Branch (Multicultural Health team) at Queensland Health. She has also conducted research and published works on refugee and multicultural health across various topics.

Outside of work, Moraa is a community leader within her Kenyan Community in QLD.

Dr Sirinon Suwanmolee is a Thai researcher with extensive experience in disaster resilience and climate adaptation across government, academia, and non-government organisations. In 2023, she was appointed to the Academic Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention, Mitigation, and Climate Change Impact Reduction, where she serves on the Working Group on Resilient Cities and Communities under the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation within the Ministry of Interior of Thailand.

From 2022 to 2024, Sirinon served as a consultant with the United Nations Development Programme, where she spearheaded stakeholder engagement and contributed to the technical development of Thailand’s National Adaptation Plan revision. Additionally, she holds the role of Secretary Chief for the Thai Network for Disaster Resilience and has provided consultation on safe school workshops to enhance disaster preparedness in the education sector.

In her academic career, Sirinon has served as an independent researcher on water management and disaster resilience, as well as a lecturer on disaster preparedness at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. Additionally, from 2021 to 2022, she taught courses on disaster risk assessment and emergency response at Mahidol University’s Kanchanaburi campus.

Sirinon’s education encompassed diverse interdisciplinary expertise. She holds a PhD in Social Development Administration from the National Institute of Development Administration (2017), a Master of Disaster Risk Management from the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (2021), a Master’s in Community Resource Management from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (2009), and a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Silpakorn University (2004).

Sirinon has dedicated her career to building community-level resilience, advancing disaster risk reduction policies, and seamlessly integrating scientific and social approaches to climate adaptation and emergency management across Thailand and the broader Southeast Asian region.

Dr Anoma van der Veere is the Japan Correspondent for NOS (Netherlands Public Broadcasting) and NRC newspaper, based in Tokyo, where he covers Japan across television, radio, and print media. He is the first international correspondent of Asian descent in Dutch public broadcasting, holding both Dutch and Thai nationality. In his role, he is responsible for general news coverage, while his personal interests lie in international relations, climate change, and disaster resilience.

Following a Master’s degree at Leiden University and an exchange at Keio University, he decided to pursue a PhD in Japan. He earned his doctorate from Osaka University in 2022 with the support of a MEXT scholarship. He now also serves as a Senior Researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre, Leiden University, focusing on Modern Asia with a specialisation in Japan.

Anoma is also a (remote) university lecturer at Maastricht University (The Netherlands), and teaches media and communication subjects at Tama University (Japan). He continues to teach and conduct research in order to maintain a connection with the academic world. He feels there is a disconnect between scientific knowledge and the general public, and believes the media plays a significant role in bridging this gap. His dual engagement in journalism and academia allows him to bring the right people together at the right moments, when possible.

Caroline Wang is the China Analyst at Climate Energy Finance. Previously, she was a Senior Policy Advisor in the Emergency Management Branch in the NSW Premier’s Department. Trained as a lawyer and linguist, she has 6 years’ experience in public and international policy, providing advice and briefings to Senior Executive officials and Ministers across a range of Australian Government portfolios. Caroline was the Principal Research Officer on the Australian Senate Inquiry into the devastating 2019-20 bushfires. Passionate about sustainability and conservation, Caroline is particularly interested in ecosystem-based approaches to disaster risk reduction.

Miki Yamamoto is an MSc student in geoinformatics at the University of Copenhagen with eight years of experience working in geospatial technology, disaster management, and forestry. She is a recipient of the Rotary Foundation Global Grant Scholarship in the environment focus. She plans to explore the potential of nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction in vulnerable regions for her thesis.

She worked as a GIS engineer in Japan during 2017–2023, handling image processing and the damaged building assessment system. She lectured to more than 70 local governments, including 11 ordinance-designated cities, on how to reduce disaster risks through preparations in peacetime. As a disaster response, she was deployed on the ground during the Niigata storm in August 2022 and the Ishikawa earthquake in May 2023 to support implementing building damage assessments and publishing damage certificates.

She participated in the JICA volunteer program during 2014–2016 in forestry conservation in Malawi, a country grappling with severe deforestation. There, she conducted community surveys and forest inventory assessments and promoted briquettes using organic waste.

In her free time, she enjoys language exchange, picnics, and hiking.