Chairperson:
Mary Dillon QSM currently chairs the Tauranga Environment Charitable Trust. In 2007 she completed 21 years as an elected member of the Tauranga City Council. Her particular interests were planning and the environment. She was a founding member of SmartGrowth, with a significant influence on the development of that strategy. Mary is a qualified Hearings Commissioner for RMA matters, with a Chairpersons' endorsement. In 2008 she was awarded the Alfred O.Glasse award by the NZPI for 'active participation in community and services to planning in Tauranga'. Mary is also the current chairperson of BayTrust and the Welcome Bay Community Support Centre and the Deputy Chair of the Tauranga Art Gallery Trust.
Deputy Chair:
Maureen Burgess BA, DipEd, DipTchg, Dip Librarianship, IT trainer, software company office manager. She is currently Deputy Chair of the Tauranga Environment Centre Charitable Trust. She also holds positions in the community as the Te Puke Ward Western Bay of Plenty District Councillor, member of the East Coast Bay of Plenty Conservation Board, Secretary/Treasurer of the Maketu Ongatoro Wetlands Group, Maketu Rotary member involved in organising the Kaimoana festival, member of the Te Puke Forest and Bird (former Chair Lower Hutt Forest and Bird and former executive member of Forest and Bird) and a trustee for Conservation Corps.
Other Trustees:
Anne Parkinson has a background in horticulture, graduating from Massey with a B Hort Sc in 1977. As her career unfolded, she realised a passion and appreciation for the environment. In her last role in New Zealand, she worked for RST Environmental Solutions Ltd in Palmerston North; a bio engineering company specialising in erosion control. She has worked extensively overseas in Bahrain as a Research Assistant with UNDP on a project growing exotic species to green desert areas, and in China, where she was a volunteer for WWF. She has also volunteered for Roots and Shoots, a Jane Godall initiative in Shanghai that teaches youth about the environment and humanitarian values. She is presently administrator for Friends of Galapagos New Zealand, a 'not for profit' organisation set up to play a part in the conservation of the Galapagos Islands.
Kimberley Cleland has been on the Board of Trustees since August 2010 and was formally an employee of the Tauranga Environment Centre, working on greening events and waste minimisation initiatives. She is currently working with Tauranga City Council as their Waste Minimisation Programme Leader. Kimberley has worked and volunteered in the sector, including chairing Otago University's student environmental group, being a youth representative on the ECO executive and spending a year as an elected representative on the Student's Association while studying for a degree in environmental management and a masters in planning. In 2008 she volunteered in Bougainville with Volunteer Services Abroad as a Research and Advocacy assistant, working with an organisation relocating at risk atoll communities off the coast of Bougainville. She is currently involved in Tauranga on the Transition Towns steering group, Let's Get Growing community garden and the Young Greens executive.
Namouta Poutasi is a Senior Environmental Planner at Beca. She has over 9 years experience in strategic and statutory planning in New Zealand and the Pacific. She is a full member of the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) and an NZPI multiple award recipient for assisting with the development of a tangata whenua coastal strategy in New Plymouth and as part of a team developing coastal asset management plans in Samoa. Namouta is also an assoicate member of Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand and is the co-editor of the Pacific Island Planners Association newsletter. She specialises in consultation and is particularly interested in Pacific and Iwi planning.
Noel Peterson was born in Tauranga in 1953 and has lived here for 50 years. Has certificates in human studies, horticultural management and basic adult tutor training. Noel has been employed in the horticultural, recycling, disability and education sectors. He has a lifelong lay science interest in natural history and environment particularly in the areas of marine biology/ecology, conchology, botany, geology, paleontology, entomology, biodiversity and terrestrial land mollusca for the Tauranga/Bay of Plenty region. He has worked as a glass recycling and reuse specialist and is currently trailing and developing organic permaculture/biodynamic garden projects using no-dig methods.