Dr Leslie Van Gelder CRG Chairperson

Dr. Leslie Van Gelder is an archaeologist, strategist, and Professor of Education at Walden University. Her work focuses on the intersections between people and place from the Upper Paleolithic to today with a special emphasis on the role of climate change and impacts on humanity across time. She is Co-Chair of the Southern Lakes Sanctuary, Chair of both the Glenorchy Heritage and Museum Group and Glenorchy Dark Skies Sanctuary Group, and has served on QLDC’s Vision Beyond 2050 Steering Group, Regenerative Recovery Advisory Group, Economic Diversification Framework and Taskforce and has engaged in research and strategy work as a consultant across multiple sectors addressing intersections of people, place and time. 

"I am delighted to join the CRG and hope to bring perspectives that are undergirded by an understanding of current thinking in the biodiversity and conservation sector in this district and internationally, as well as a wider desire to work with the inspiring people who are serving on this group to find greater ways of integrating our diverse approaches to the challenges we face into a dynamic coherence that will be beneficial for the future of this place we call home and our wider planet."