CERES School of Nature and Climate Team
Meet our dedicated, passionate and expert team of educators that deliver a range of inspiring programs for early childhood centres, schools, tertiary institutions and individuals.
Learning Director and Managers
Educators and Staff
Abi started working at CERES in 2019 which gave her an opportunity to work at an organisation that matches her values and regard for nature. She is currently a Horticulture and Permaculture VET trainer, and a staff at CERES’ permaculture and bush food nursery.
She considers her experience and training as a volunteer propagator at CERES as an important factor in pursuing her current career path after transitioning from another vocation. As a horticulturist, she is able to apply her values in a more practical and tangible way. She enjoys encouraging people from different backgrounds, especially women and young people, to work with plants and help improve the connection between people and our natural environment. Observing and figuring out how to best grow healthy plants also satisfies her thirst to learn and interest in trying tested or new ideas.
After completing a Bachelor of Performing Arts and Monash University, and designing for a number of theatre productions across Melbourne, Adrian was yearning to have his connection to nature as part of his career. Along with his childhood friend, Adrian started his own mobile education business – Wildlife Gone Walkabout; an interactive travelling zoo, educating students and adults about Australian wildlife conservation. For 6 years, Adrian traveled across Victorian fostering a deep connection to Australia’s fauna as a wildlife presenter and educator.
Due to COVID, Adrian was forced to close his business and continue his love of sustainable and environmental education elsewhere. Finding the inner city paradise of CERES, Adrian now coordinates the Caring for Climate and Change program as part of the School of Nature and Climate, sharing his values and love of the environment with the students who visit. As a passionate climate activist, Adrian knows that educating young people is one of the best solutions to solve the climate crisis, and create a sustainable and equitable future.
Belinda has completed an Advanced Diploma in Horticulture at Melbourne University, a Permaculture Design Course and is currently employed as the Site Horticulturalist and Volunteer Coordinator at CERES Environment Park and runs a sustainable garden design and maintenance company. Along with her hands-on experience she is currently working on several literary productions based on permaculture and sustainable gardening along with producing a plant database for the inner Melbourne region.
Christine has tertiary qualifications in Sustainability, Community Services and Fine Arts and has a passion for social justice, food security and biodiversity. She loves nothing more than being able to spend her downtime searching for new bushwalking trails and just sitting and taking in the sights and sounds of the natural world.
In 2016, after establishing a successful sustainability program at her school, Clare discovered that she could share her passion for the environment with her students. This led Clare to join CERES School of Nature and Climate where she delivers the Schools for Wildlife program. Working at CERES has shown Clare the importance of developing a strong sense of community and has allowed her to continue empowering students to take action for the environment, both at school and in their daily lives.
As an environmental and social scientist, Daisy has worked extensively in sustainability and behaviour change education, social research, community-led sustainable energy transitions, and socially inclusive food security initiatives. Underlying all of this, is the hope that she can help create (even in a small way!) socially, culturally, and environmentally aware communities through action on a “local” scale.
Most recently, Daisy was awarded the inaugural Mike Hill Fellowship – a partnership between the Australian Energy Foundation and Moreland City Council.
During this time, Daisy undertook her Masters in Environmental Science, researching how the embodiment of hope, and hope-based practices may enact pro-environmental behaviours, and climate action on an individual and community level.
In her spare time, Daisy can be found riding around the Victorian High Country by bike, gaining inspiration for botanical drawings of her true love – the unique flora of the Australian Alpine region!
Daniela has a Masters of Arts in Online and Distance Education from The Open University (UK) and a Diploma of Sustainability from Swinburne University of Technology. She believes in the power of education and hopes to continue the great work done at CERES and to build more great online education opportunities that will benefit the earth.
Emma has experience working in a range of environmental non-government organisations as a community organiser where she assisted local community groups from around Australia in divesting their council from fossil fuels. From this work she developed her belief in the power of grassroots actions to create sustainable community change.
Emma has volunteered extensively both in Australia and overseas following her passion of fostering creative, courageous, and compassionate young people by teaching about environmental sustainability. This work led her to complete her Masters of Education in Primary. She has worked as a Primary School teacher in a variety of Victorian and New South Wales schools.
He and his young family do anything they can to leave a gentle footprint on our country and he is quick to lend a hand to anyone else wanting to do so. He strives to make everyone he meets excited about the environment. Working with CERES as an outreach educator is something he cannot wait to be a part of. With so many working for sustainability, he is more than ready to be a part of this network.
Lisa is active in her community sharing the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. In her spare time, you can find Lisa leading the kitchen garden of the local primary school, an evolving space which has been designed using permaculture principles. You might also find her tending to her productive garden, chickens and guinea pigs.
Outside of work Michelle is passionate about sustainable/ethical fashion, travel and dreams of living off the grid.
Pia has run sustainable education sessions with people of all ages, and has worked across primary and secondary schools to help set up productive gardens and composting systems. She loves seeing the joy sparked when people connect with nature – it could be something as simple as discovering a beautiful butterfly atop a flower. Pia is inspired by the many people finding creative solutions to the environmental challenges we face, and is delighted to be part of the CERES community. In her role at CERES, Pia supports schools on their sustainability journey as part of the ResourceSmart Schools Program.
She is passionate about experiential learning and challenging people to think about themselves and the world differently. She believes that relationships and stories are what really touch and move people, and that is what she aims to nurture as a trip coordinator and facilitator.
Her favourite things about working at CERES are the creativity and dynamism within her role and the organisation.
Collaborators and Contractors
Benedict is also a commercial migratory beekeeper who runs around 100 beehives across Victoria. He produces small-batch, raw local honey which is available through Farmers Markets and select retail outlets. His bees also provide pollination services for Almonds and other horticulture crops.
Benedict is the resident Beekeeper at Ceres (Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies) and is approved by the City of Darebin to keep bees in Darebin Parklands and Bundoora Park.
Benedict regularly runs school incursions about bees and beekeeping, he also delivers adult educational courses at Melbourne Polytechnic and CERES in Brunswick as well as at Edendale Community Environment Farm in Eltham.
Benedict is also the founding President of The Australian Pollinator Alliance, a not-for-profit dedicated to promoting the health of bees and all pollinators, critical to our food and natural environment, through education, research and conservation.
You can find him on Facebook and Instagram as @Practical_Beekeeper.
As an illustrator, Brenna has worked with the Australian Red Cross, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, Plan International, Milkwood Permaculture, the Bob Brown Foundation, CSIRO and Costa Georgiadis, among others.
As an educator, Brenna has taught alongside the biggest names in permaculture, including Rosemary Morrow, David Holmgren, Dan Palmer, and Hannah Moloney.
She co-runs Grow Do It Permaculture Education, a project focused on bringing climate solutions to kids (and their grown ups) through art, music and creativity.
Brenna is currently building her own strawbale house out of reclaimed materials in Western Australia on Noongar boodja. She acknowledges the traditional owners of this land, and that sovereignty was never ceded.
Janet Clayton is the proprietor of Cheeselinks, she is a qualified cheesemaker who has completed her studies at the Artisan Cheesemaking Academy in South Australia. She has conducted many workshops all over Australia but loves to teach here at CERES and at her home in LARA.
Charlene Angus is an experienced cheese instructor who conducts many workshops on the Bellarine Peninsula. She enjoys sharing her skills with people who share her love of all things cheesy.
With chickens, worms and a productive food garden in the front yard of her suburban block, Donna is reimagining what it means to live a good life in the city and shares this with others in her local community and through her Instagram page A Good Life in the City and Town.
In the early 2000s’ Ian wrote The Holistic Life – a book that is an intro to permaculture. In 2015-19 he was involved in the Green Education movement in Hong Kong, and at the Green School Bali, teaching a PDC there and teaching in Shanghai. Ian and his partner Marita designed and built a straw bale, energy-efficient home in central Victoria where they live a permaculture-inspired lifestyle, eating from their garden every day and creating a sanctuary for the bees and birds and lizards.
Joel lives with his family on the fringe of Castlemaine – Central Victoria, in their owner built and designed passive solar straw-bale home, where he continually works on his permaculture business, property and ideas. When not in the shed Joel can often be found in the garden, growing food, building hot compost piles, tending to the chooks or scything around the orchard trees. Joel is an avid bike rider and repairer, likes playing and making guitars, building furniture, blacksmithing and leather
