New series

Resilience Matters webinar series

Name: Resilience Matters
Start: 0001-01-01
End: 0001-01-01
Location: National

Exploring disaster risk reduction and resilience

The Resilience Matters webinar series will focus on systems, environments and human factors that intersect to influence the varying levels of risk, harm and equity that people experience before, during and after a disaster.

Presenters from a variety of research, government and community backgrounds will be invited to provide their insights and perspectives as we seek to understand how we can reduce harm in these systems to reduce disaster risk and build resilience.

Throughout the series, we will build on these foundational concepts. Everyone is very welcome, whether you are an experienced practitioner or are new to these concepts, or somewhere in between.

Look out for new webinars as they are developed and added to the events calendar.

Webinar 1 - Foundations of disaster risk reduction and resilience

1pm-2pm, Wednesday 16 April 2025

Professor David Sanderson

AIDR welcomes David Sanderson, Inaugural Judith Neilson Professor of Architecture UNSW, to launch the Resilience Matters webinar.

Starting with an overview of the history of risk, resilience and disaster risk reduction (DRR), David will unpack key concepts of DRR, and explore DRR in practice, with particular consideration given to vulnerable people and groups, climate change adaptation and sustainable development.

Presenter information:

David Sanderson - Inaugural Judith Neilson Professor of Architecture at UNSW

David has over 30 years’ experience working across the world in development and emergencies. He worked for 12 years in NGOs and consultancy in all regions before joining academia in 2006. David was Director of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) at Oxford Brookes University 2006-2014. Between 2013-2014 he was a full time Visiting Professor at Harvard University.

David became the Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Architecture at UNSW in 2016. David has sat on several NGO and funding boards including the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Humanitarian Innovations Fund. He is author of the 2019 ODI/ALNAP Urban Humanitarian Response Good Practice Review and was co-editor of the 2016 IFRC World Disasters Report focusing on resilience. David holds a doctorate in development and disasters. As well as Australia, David has held (full) professorships in the UK and Norway and as well as the USA visiting professorships in Spain and France.

Kirsten Jenkins - Manager Community Safety, Maroondah City Council

Kirsten had a significant role in Nillumbik Shire Council’s response to the February 2009 bushfires that affected the municipality, both in community recovery and public health areas. She has completed a postgraduate diploma in Community and International Development. She has been to Haiti and Nepal following the earthquakes, as a Community Health delegate with the Australian Red Cross.

Since 2016, Kirsten has been the Community Safety Manager and Municipal Recovery Manager at Maroondah City Council in 2016. She played a lead role in the Council Covid recovery process as well as regularly supporting other councils during disasters such as January 2019-2020 bushfires.

John Richardson - Interim Executive Director, Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience

John has qualifications in Geography, Nursing and Environmental Science. He has worked in disaster management since 1997, in a range of roles including the State Recovery Manager for Victoria in the early 2000s, and more recently the National Resilience Adviser for the Australia Red Cross. He also is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne. He has a keen interest and eye for patterns and connections in disasters, both at a practice and a policy level. He has strong interests in bereavement in the public realm and how music represents the disaster experience.

Webinar recording

Follow up Q&A discussion