our project team
The Urban Ecoliving Charitable Trust is governed by a Board of Trustees: Brent Ogilvie, Executive Director, Pacific Channel, Julian Nixon, Editor, United Press, Gael Ogilvie, Senior Principal, URS New Zealand, Chris Walton, Health and Safety Advisor and Stephen Ellett, Associate, Signium
The Tread Lightly Caravan project has been developed by Gael Ogilvie and Andrea Kendall, with lots of help from advisors and supporters. Gael has more than 25 years experience as an environmental consultant and is providing overall direction for the project. Andrea is an experienced project manager and is looking after day-to-day project development and managing sub consultants. Our principal educator is Sarah Thornhill. Sarah is an experienced teacher who is passionate about environmental education and about hands-on learning experiences.
Gael, Andrea and Sarah are supported by Rosi Speakman keeping a watchful eye on everything administrative in particular our financial accounts.
Our project team was extremely fortunate to have been ably assisted by Bettina Anderson of Pukeko Blue Communications (http://www.pukekoblue.co.nz/pukeko-who.html) and Emmanuel Yiannoutsos (http://emmanueldesign.co.nz) . Bettina and Emmanuel previously acted as the project manager and designer respectively for the Green Rig - New Zealand's only other mobile environmental classroom which is operated out of Palmerston North by Horizons Manawatu.
Over the three years in development, we have had a huge number of people contribute to the project:
- Sarah Painter and Emma Boyne-Warner developed the bulk of our educational material including linkages to the New Zealand curricula.
- Stephne Vaughan helped us with one of the most important tasks - securing sponsorships.
- Ilai Amir (Connected Media) did an excellent job of putting together this website.
- Peter Millward (Nelson Museum) provided invaluable support, in the early stages describing exactly what does and doesn’t make a great exhibit.
- Hilary Tolley acted as editor and proof-reader extraordinare for various contestable fund applications.
Brent Bielby and Damon Birchfield continue to provide valuable feedback and great ideas.
Most importantly – on the educational front, dozens of young people and their teachers at MeadowBank School, Gladstone Primary, The One Day School, Epsom Normal Primary School and Murrays Bay Intermediate have helped by using their imaginations to create great ideas for our educational exhibits.
The entire environmental education group at the Auckland Regional Council and also at Education for Sustainability have provided ongoing support and wonderful creative input into the educational design of our exhibits - including Hilary Chidlow, Sarah Sheeran, Bridget Glasgow, Kate Jackson and Cate Jessop.
Then there are all of those amazing talented practitioners who share a similar vision – that we "can" create a world which is about caring for our planet and for each other. These include Frank Olsson, Leanne Holdsworth, Nick Jones, Brendan Hoare, Nick Collins, Rachel Brown, Carl Chenery and lots more.