About Council members
Dr Sarah Ryan has a PhD in agriculture and 30 years research experience spanning agriculture, international development, ecology and water research. She is currently an Honorary Fellow at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and working on ecosystem governance research. Sarah has been active in the community throughout her 25 years in Canberra. She was a member and then Chair of the Advisory Council of Canberra Institute of Technology over many years, and more recently joined the ACT Environment Advisory Committee which was the forerunner to the NRM Council. Sarah also has strong personal interests in communicating about environmental issues in art and writing and is an active participant in environmental art projects with the School of Art, Australian National University.
Mr Bill McCormick, Deputy Chair
Bill McCormick has thirty years experience in providing analysis and policy advice in relation to environmental and natural resource management issues. He has a BSc in Biology and MSc in Zoology specialising in ecology and is a member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand. He has written articles on forestry, water, salinity, world heritage and fire management issues.
Peter has almost forty years of extensive, reputable experience in natural resource management and agriculture at the operational, regional executive, senior executive and chief executive level. Peter's experience spans four NSW Government agencies, most NSW regions, other states and territories, business organisations and a diverse range of issues, disciplines and industries.
Peter was a former Western Lands Commissioner, Soil Conservation Commissioner and Chief Executive of the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Trust. As an Executive Director with the (former) NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, Peter had state-wide responsibility for catchment management including the network of catchment organisations.
Peter has operated his own consultancy business, been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Western Sydney and a judge of the National Landcare Awards. Peter is also a Churchill Fellow.
Peter is a board member with Greening Australia Capital Region and is working with the Ginninderra Catchment Group to advance community based catchment management in the ACT.
I grew up in a rural area, and then spent 20 years in the farming industry growing rice and winter cereals in conjunction with woolgrowing merino sheep. While farming I collected native seed for propagating and revegetating regions of our farmland. I also identified areas of remnant native vegetation and implemented measures to secure its preservation.
Since 2001 I have been studying and I am now completing a degree in Archaeology which I intend to apply in the Australian context. Understanding how Indigenous Australians successfully managed the environment for over 40,000 years, prior to European arrival, is an essential component in constructing future environmental strategies.
