About Us
The Resilience Canopy is a nation-wide program with a growing network of partners and communities. Building and sharing knowledge about ways to build resilient communities, this evolving community of practice aims to create a ripple effect that will embed itself for generations.
The Resilience Canopy is an Australian for-purpose organisation.
With the dedicated support of our legacy philanthropic partners, we are committed to ensuring 100% of donations made to community projects goes directly to those communities.
Our Board
Angus Johnson
Chair
Angus has extensive private sector experience working more than 20 years with publicly listed property organisations. He has led business through complex, challenging and diverse environments. Angus’ work has had a focus on community development and creating connected communities.
Craig North
Deputy Chair (Joint)
Craig is currently Executive Director at the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation, Advisor with Mannifera to support First Nations economic inclusion initiatives and a member of the First Nations Reference Group with the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute.
Toby Kent
Deputy Chair (Joint)
As an expert in sustainability and societal resilience, Toby has worked globally in these fields, including as Melbourne's first Chief Resilience Officer. He is the incoming CEO of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council. Together with Brett Ellis in 2020, they established ResilientCo, a consultancy focused on solving tomorrow’s challenges.
Michelle Richards
Director
Michelle has worked in both state and local government for almost two decades, with extensive experience in delivering governance, risk, community, education, economic and recovery programs.
Meet the team
Thegrowing team behind The Resilience Canopy brings together the organisation’s training, engagement, partnerships and resources.
Natalie Staaks
GM Marketing & Partnerships
Natalie has demonstrated accomplishments in senior leadership roles within state and local government in Victoria. She has a well-developed reputation as a strategic thinker driving corporate reputation through positioning, with a decades-long focus on disaster management and community resilience.
Brett Ellis
Managing Director
Brett is well known for his positive impact on local and state government in emergency management, public safety and social resilience with strong strategic thinking and a demonstrable history of innovation and sound financial management. Brett is the Managing Director of resilience specialists ResilientCo and independent director of Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation.
Sally Hutchinson
General Manager Communities
An established leader in community engagement for the past two decades, Sally’s ‘people-first’ approach has shaped the The Resilience Canopy’s approach to bringing all partners along the journey.
Tia Baptista
National Coordinator & Trainer
As the resident expert in policy design, Tia’s knowledge of facilitating community connection and resilience through holistic approaches has shaped The Resilience Canopy’s training approach and program roll-out.
Jeremy O'Meara
Experience Lead
Jeremy brings 14+ years designing and developing digital products to bring us Canopy House, our forthcoming program portal which will work as beautifully as it will look.
Maree Grenfell
Training and Facilitation
A widely-respected name in resilience and community development circles, Maree brings her wide-ranging experience in co-design, facilitation and resilience building to designing The Resilience Canopy’s training program.
Shannon Bakker
Marketing
Well-known for making the complex into the simple, Shannon brings 15+ years of strategic communications leadership from the issues-rich government and emergency sector to make the impact of The Resilience Canopy shine.
Dean Griggs
Stakeholder Management
A highly strategic thinker and connector of people and communities, Dean has led disaster response, community resilience and city safety programs across Tasmania and Victoria for the last 2 decades.
Our partners in resilience
Resilient Co are experts in resilience strategy, disaster and climate adaptation, and community resilience practice. Brett Ellis pioneered the Six Step Future Ready Communities Engagement model while working with fire-affected communities inVictoria.
Visit www.resilientco.au for more info
The Minderoo Foundation takes on tough persistent issues with the potential to drive massive change. The Foundation incubates ideas, advocates for systems change and accelerates positive impact
Visit minderoo.org for more info
Communities...
The Resilience Canopy
