Ellen is the Campaigns Director of the Australian Youth Climate
Coalition - an innovative climate change organisation that is also
Australia's largest youth organisation.
In 2007 she was part of the first Australian Youth Delegation to the
UNFCCC climate change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, and also led
the Australian youth delegation to the talks in Poland 2008 and
Copenhagen 2009.
She was previously the Environment Officer in the University of
Melbourne Student Union, leading a successful campaign to get the
University to commit to carbon neutrality. Ellen is the founder of the
award-winning Leadership in Environmental Action Program (LEAP), an
environmental leadership conference for high school students.
Ellen has also worked as a Policy Adviser in the Office of Climate
Change in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Ellen was born in Alice Springs and grew up in Mildura, in northwest
Victoria. She has had a wide range of jobs, including rehabilitating
numbats at Scotia Santuary in rural NSW, and researching plant
genetics at the CSIRO. She spends her time riding her bike, speaking
and writing on climate change and running the AYCC.
Ellen's previous speaking engagements include:
- Keynote speaker at the Walk Against Warming rally in 2007 - speaking
alongside CEO of World Vision, Rev. Tim Costello, and speaking to
50,000 people.
- Keynote speaker at the 2008 Greening Australia annual teachers conference
- Keynote speaker at the Wooglemai Environment Conference in Sydney in June 2009
Ellen has also given speeches and workshops at dozens of schools, including:
- Melbourne Girls College
- Geelong Grammar School
- Sacred Heart School, Geelong
- Melbourne High School
- Firbank Grammar School
... and many others
As coordinator of the AYCC's 'Switched On Schools' program Ellen has
run workshops for high school students on climate change and youth
leadership in places as varied as Swan Hill, Horsham, Sydney,
Melbourne, and more.
Ellen can run presentations and/or workshops from 10 minutes to 1.5
hours on the following topics:
- Youth and leadership (young people changing the world)
- Young people following their dreams
- Environment and climate change
- International climate issues (the United Nations, Kyoto Protocol, and
what it means)
- International youth climate movement (stories from young people taking
action on climate change from around the world)
- Climate change and the Pacific - how climate change is affecting our
nearest neighbours
- Climate change and human rights
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