Louise is incredibly passionate about protecting and bettering the environment to ensure a sustainable future for our community through the implementation of evidence-informed decision-making. With a PhD in biological sciences, Louise has a strong technical background combined with research and industry experience. She has been leading rigorous applied science and policy programs across a range of environments, from drinking water catchments to open oceans.

Louise began her career as a marine ecologist in the research sector, investigating the impacts of contaminants and invasive species on coastal habitats in New South Wales. This was followed by a stint as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre in the US, where she examined the global spread of invasive species via shipping.

On return to Australia, Louise stumbled on the water sector, taking a role at Hunter Water while scouting for the next research position and ended up staying there for a decade. During that time, Louise delivered projects in Strategy, Planning, and Operations in both the drinking water and wastewater sectors of the business. This included designing and delivering Hunter Water's first-of-its-kind green offsets trial program. Louise worked closely with local communities to co-design and deliver a Catchment Improvement Program aimed at offsetting the impacts of a sewage treatment plant. This involved combining strategic analysis and stakeholder engagement with science-based evidence to design and identify the best options for improving water quality and waterway health.

Louise next moved to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW, previously Department of Planning & Environment) to lead two teams delivering the Flood recovery program for water quality monitoring - East Coast and the Bushfire affected waterways program. These projects investigated the impact of floods and bushfires on water quality and aquatic ecosystems, creating information and management support tools for land managers to enhance waterway resilience.

Followed by a stint at Water Research Australia, facilitating industry-driven research at a national level, Louise decided to pivot. Throughout her career, she steadily moved upstream from marine and estuarine ecology to catchment management, understanding the best way to look after these ecosystems is to care for the land that drains into them.

As such, Louise couldn't resist the opportunity to lead catchment management reform in NSW as Manager Catchment Reform at DCCEEW. Stepping into this new space has been exciting as she seeks to understand the complexity of catchment governance and determine the policy levers that can be pulled to drive integrated catchment management for the state. Because we know that healthy waterways are integral to our communities. The integrated catchment management program utilises Louise’s unique skillset in understanding the integral intersection of science and policy, bringing evidence-based policy to the fore.