NZAIA CORE GROUP 2024

​The Core Group meets on a monthly basis via teleconferencing to discuss and implement NZAIA business.
​All Core Group members are volunteers. 

Terry Calmeyer - Chair

Gillian Stewart - Secretary
After over 25 years of consulting in the environmental management sector in Southern Africa Terry moved to New Zealand to take up a position at the Environmental Protection Authority in January 2020. Her skills are founded on a Masters degree in Geography (Environment and Society) from the University of Pretoria and she is experienced in undertaking environmental impact assessments for large infrastructure projects in the water, transport and energy sectors.  In South Africa, Terry was actively involved in IAIA as well as the South African affiliate of IAIA that she was president of in 2012 – 2013.
 
Terry is certified as an Environmental Practitioner (CEnvP) and is currently an Associate Director and Planner at Enspire Consulting based in Tauranga.
Gillian has a PhD in international development from the University of Bristol, UK. Since moving to New Zealand in 2002, she has worked in the local government sector in senior strategy and policy roles and, more recently, leads her own social impact, research and evaluation consultancy – Co-Creationz – from her home in Pukekohe.
 
Gillian is a trained and experienced social researcher and social impact assessment (SIA) professional and has worked on a range of social, economic and environmental issues with a variety of community, business and enterprise, and consultancy firms, as well as public sector agencies in Auckland and nationally.  She has been a Core Group Member of the New Zealand Association for Impact Assessment (NZAIA) for over 5 years, and is currently its Secretary. She is also a member of the International Association Impact Assessment (IAIA) and the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) and has a Certificate of Training in Social Impact Assessment (EIANZ) and IAP2 certificate in public participation.
 
 Alongside SIA contract work with Auckland Council and City Rail Link, she is currently employed part-time with Habitat for Humanity Northern Region as Funding and Impact Lead.

Andrew Crosland - Treasurer

Andrew Crosland has been interested in the effectiveness of impact assessment since taking papers by Richard Morgan while at the University of Otago.

Andrew had 15 years experience as an environmental planner at councils, MfE and the EPA. While no longer working in the field of environmental impact assessment, Andrew is enjoying the challenge of applying impact assessment methodology to regulatory stewardship. 

Membership of NZAIA is a great way to keep up to date with the practice and community of the Impact Assessment profession. 

Sophal Chhun 

Sophal Chhun is a socio-ecological researcher and impact assessment practitioner with over 10 years’ experience from both regulatory and consulting perspectives.  He has completed more than 50 consultancy projects in Cambodia on environmental and social impact assessment for consents/approvals and developed mitigation guidelines and safeguard plans for several international development projects.  As an ecological economist by training, Sophal has advocated integrating environmental valuation into impact assessment for decision-making support and using economic instruments for environmental policy (including payment for ecosystem services and pollution taxes).  He is an Independent Consultant, Consulting Partner at CES Co. Ltd., and Guest Lecturer of environmental impact assessment at Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).
 
Sophal with his wife and three children migrated to New Zealand in 2019.  He was a Senior Policy Analyst, science policy at NZ Ministry for Primary Industries. With a passion for research and impact assessment, Sophal has joined and taken a role as a Core Group Member and was Secretary of NZAIA 2020-2022.  He has recently been accredited as a Certified Environmental Practitioner (CEnvP).  

Richard Morgan

Nick Taylor 
Richard is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Otago, Dunedin.  Although he began his career as a biogeographer, investigating human impacts on soil and vegetation systems, he soon developed an interest in impact assessment in the early 1980s, and this became his main research focus following the enactment of the Resource Management Act 1991. Richard’s research addresses issues around improving the quality and effectiveness of IA, both through institutional change and better practice,  across all forms of assessment, from ecological to social, cultural, and health,  through to strategic environmental assessment and regulatory impact assessment. He has published extensively on impact assessment, including an international textbook. Currently a trainer on IAIA’s online EIA course, Richard has also run training sessions at a number of IAIA conferences, and for SPREP in various countries in Asia-Pacific region, as well as training courses within New Zealand. Richard stepped down as Chair of NZAIA in December 2023, after 16 years in that role;  he is also a past President of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) (2002-5).
Nick is a specialist in SIA. As a school leaver VSA in Sarawak seeing native forest logging expand, he was drawn to an interest in people and the environment, studying geography and anthropology at Otago and resource management at the Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences.  His PhD at Canterbury investigated the impacts of NZ agricultural development projects in the Cook Islands, expanding an interest in how projects are designed and implemented, often with inadequate consideration of their cultural and social implications.

​Convinced about the need to integrate environmental and social perspectives, Nick was drawn to the Centre for Resource Management at Lincoln University, where the late Dr John Hayward led what we would now call a strategic investigation of the impacts of large scale mining of lignite for synthetic fuels.  No, it didn’t proceed.  But Nick got involved in developing capacity and training in SIA and went on, with James Baines, to form a consulting firm doing SIA and environmental research.  Nick was President of the IAIA from 2008-11 and in recent years led the course on EIA at Lincoln.

Tracey Hooper

Bruce Conaghan
Tracey is an environmental consultant and impact assessment specialist with over 30 years experience in environmental science, environmental management, and town planning. This background provides the foundation of her work which is focused on environmental impact assessment and environmental management, primarily for infrastructure projects.
 
The delivery of impact assessment for projects in Australia, New Zealand, and the Asia-Pacific region is the core of her day-to-day work. This experience has given Tracey a broad perspective on the how we design, construct and manage these projects, the legislation and processes under which they are delivered, and the associated benefits and shortcomings.

Tracey  joined the core group in 2024. She is also a member of EIANZ and has presented and co-authored papers at both EIANZ and IAIA events.  
Bruce Conaghan has a diverse education in Engineering, Risk Management, Water Resource Management, and Wildlife Management.  He has worked in both the local government sector and the consulting industry in a range of roles oriented around transportation policy, strategy, and operations.

His current role with local government sees him as part of a team reviewing the Assessment of Environment Effects for developments, with his responsibility being to review and advise on transportation impact assessments.  He is able to combine his wide education and experience with the spectrum of impact assessment to gain and provide a better understanding of the wider impacts, effects, and interactions of proposed developments.

Rebecca Foy

Larissa Hinds
Rebecca has a Master of Arts (Hons) in Geography from the University of Auckland. Her interest in social and human geography began at secondary school, or even earlier during many car trips travelling around NZ to visit family.  At university she studied a wide range of post-graduate geography topics including environmental, economic, social, rural sectors, GIS, and qualitative and quantitative research methods. 

She is a director of Formative, an Auckland based consultancy that focuses on social impact, economic impact, population and demographic change, and resource management projects. Prior to her current role, Rebecca worked at an economic consultancy for twenty years. She has undertaken a wide range of contract social impact assessment work and peer reviews for councils, private sector, and submitter (community) groups, including in the following sectors: housing, urban form and place-making, planning for natural hazards, transport (active modes, public transport, roading projects and airport expansions), highly productive land, and windfarms.

Tegan Baker
I am a student based in Auckland, originally from South Africa, my interests are in environmental science and social science with a background in psychology and a  growing interest in Impact Assessment (IA). I’m just beginning my journey in this field and look forward to learning more about the diverse ways IA supports sustainable development and community wellbeing.
"Silent" core group members

Dyanna Jolly,
Sen. Lecturer, Lincoln University
Rajan Chandra Ghosh
Wellington City Council
Hamish Rennie
Associate Professor, Lincoln University
​Katherine Russell 
​Independent consultant
Ian Boothroyd
Senior Principal, BoffaMiskell
Gerard Fitzgerald
Director, Fitzgerald Applied Sociology
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