LAADS+Team+Member+Profiles

=__Team Member Profiles__=

**Sara Harvest**
toc Sara is new to S.M.I.T.E being recently appointed for her expertise as an agricultural scientist. As a child Sara grew up on a medium size farm in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Growing up Sara was constantly asking and questioning her parents about the reasons behind what they were doing on the farm, Sara didn't mind the hands on work but right from an early age had a fascination with connecting the different aspects of farming to the many aspects of the world. Sara graduated from Sauk Centre High as homecoming queen. She was then accepted in the Bachelor of agricultural science at the University of Queensland. Sara loves travelling the world; she particularly likes eating the many differing foods from these countries but will always have a soft spot for the tiny town of Sauk Centre and her mum's homemade banana cream pie.

**Ivy Forest**
Ivy’s pas﻿sion for the environment first began as a young child growing up on a small farm in country Victoria. Through living off the land, Ivy discovered the negative impacts that humans can cause to the land and ways that they can destroy the native vegetation. After studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Ivy guided by her passion as a child, developed a deep understanding of the word we live in, and the ways humans can control or minimise the harmful effects of human activity on the environment.

After a near death accident in the wildness of the Papua New Guinea Mountains, discovering areas of untouched land, Ivy is very excited to be able to experience another area of untouched land on an island, in the South Pacific Ocean. Land that humans have not had the opportunity to destroy or alter in anyway. However, Ivy will certainly be careful of where she walks, as one near death encounter is enough for her!

Ivy has a passion for her job and is dedicate to making a difference to our environment. When not dedicating her time to her work, Ivy loves to be an active person taking long runs with the family dog Millie and relaxing at her family home in the green fields of Healesville.

**Carmen Stockley **
Carmen has recently joined S.M.I.T.E in the LAADS task force for her expertise as an economist. Prior to this she was working in Germany for 7 years with the government to decrease their unemployment rates and advise on taxation issues. She completed her Master's degree in Economics at Melbourne University.

Her passion for economics began in her teenage years as she worked at her first job in a small clothing shop. She loved analysing and researching the goods that she was selling and managed to improve the way the business ran. Since then she has spent much of her time researching how people, industries and governments spend money and what countries produce and consume.

She is also interested in spending her own money. Carmen has a shopping addiction and has an enormous scarf collection, from all over the world, that she has been building for many years. She justifies her shopping as it is investing into the economy she supports.

**Lena Hitzel**
Lena was born in Switzerland to naturalist parents. She spent most of her childhood travelling around the world because of her fathers job commitments and subsequently was educated in South America, Indonesia, Northern Europe and South Africa. She can speak four languages. After completeing a language degree at The University of Pretoria, she began a career as a freelance journalist with an interest in covering natural disasters.

This interest has lead to Lena becoming more involved in the cause and effect of climate changes on the environment and she is currently an active member of 'Greenpeace' and was an early avocate of Global Warming.

It is these passions that brings her to S.M.I.T.E as part of the LADDS task force. She hopes to use her journalistic skills to communicate how planning. energy and populations need to be fully sustainable for future generations.

**Louise Smart**
Louise Smart recently joined into S.M.I.T.E in the LAADS task force for her expertise as an engineer. Louise is from Asia country, she was as an international student studied in University of Maryland College Park to attended Traf-NetSim Training Course, Traffic Institute at North-western University of Traffic and Transportation Engineering Seminar short course, and University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada with B.S. i n Physical E ducation.

As a Transportation Engineer, she had ever in The Georgia Department of Transportation, to undertaken a formal training program to get familiar with the engineering work functions and organizational structure of the department. Learnt to evaluate or perform all major aspects pf transportation engineering by revolving through various functional areas including road/bridge construction, inspection/project management, planning, urban design, bridge design, road design, materials testing and research, environmental studies, geotechnical studies, traffic operations, safety and designs.

Louise has the confidence to design the perfect transport in the island and to put her passion into work.