Meet the Team

 Van is an Associate Professor from La Trobe University in Victoria and is the 1 Million Turtles Program Lead and the contact person for both national and VIC enquiries. 

 He is an integrative biologist who researches vertebrate reproduction to answer big questions in conservation and evolution. He has studied turtle nesting and reproductive ecology for over 10 years to determine how threats like invasive predators, pollution, and climate change affect turtle hatching success.

Ricky is an Associate Professor from Western Sydney University and the Co-Program Lead and the contact person for both national and NSW enquiries. 

Ricky is also the manager of TurtleSAT  and actively strives for active engagement with communities and management agencies to ensure best practice research is integrated to its full potential.

 Deb is a Conservation Biologist and head of the Laboratory of Applied Zoology and Ecosystem Restoration (LAZER) in School of Environmental and Rural Science and University of New England. She is a program team member and  the contact person for enquiries from Armidale NSW. She is also currently writing a children's book to raise awareness about turtle conservation. 

Professor Mike Thompson is an emeritus professor from the University of Sydney. Mike has been at the forefront of turtle biology research in Australia since the "80s". He produced the first publication demonstrating that Australian Turtles were at risk due to predation by foxes and he is the face of turtle conservation in South Australia. 

Program Team Member and the contact person for enquiries from South Australia and parts of Victoria.

 Post-doctoral researcher and turtle ecologist at Murdoch University and our Western Australia program contact.

Anthony enjoys using a mixture of field observations, tracking technologies and modelling to answer applied conservation ecology questions, specifically relating to the effects of climate change, urbanisation, and predation. He is the face of the citizen science based Saving Our Snake Necked Turtle project, and the contact person for all enquiries from Western Australia.

 Dr. Donald McKnight is a postdoctoral researcher at James Cook University. He has been studying turtle conservation and ecology around the world for over a decade and uses a combination of field-based monitoring and molecular research to understand these fascinating creatures. 

 Dr. Sylvia Clarke is the Senior Project Officer for Citizen Science with the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board in South Australia.  She has a background in ecology, natural resource management and science communication.  She currently coordinates a number of citizen science projects that engage the community in being actively involved in increasing the collective understanding of the region and its waterways. 

1 Million Turtles Program Coordinator for South Australia. 

Geetha is the founder of Project Checkpoint and worked previously with the Saving our Species program based in NSW. She is a project management and evaluation professional and has designed and delivered more than 20 citizen science and conservation projects both in Australia and internationally over the last 9 years. Geetha is currently assisting with program management and coordination tasks. 

1 Million Turtles Program Coordinator for NSW. 

 Courtney is a Wetland Project Officer with the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board and provides additional support to the 1 Million Turtles Program Team. 

 Since 2001, Marilyn has led the Mary River turtle conservation program in the Mary River catchment. She was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to investigate freshwater turtle conservation and community engagement in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Brazil.  Marilyn works with Tiaro Landcare group and is a Lab Associate of MLE Lab, Charles Darwin University. 

  Atlanta is a passionate Citizen Scientist of 15 years with a Bachelors in Restoration Ecology. She has been collecting long term data on Chelodina colliei in Albany WA since 2007. She’s Albany’s go to girl, regularly appearing in the local media to promote awareness of this freshwater turtle throughout the region.  Her enthusiasm for the south western snaked necked turtles is shared with numerous schools and community groups and her collaboration with the City of Albany has created traffic signage specifically targeting the turtle nesting season and also for when the hatchlings emerge in winter, to reduce traffic mortality at turtle crossing hotspots. She hopes to bring her knowledge of freshwater turtle ecology and connection to community to promote the 1 million turtles progam throughout the great southern of Western Australia.

Willem has been researching conservation and ecology for more that 30 years. Willem is a professor at Ohio University and has created TERP (Terrapin Education and Research Partnership), which integrates K-12 environmental education and literacy with conservation science to both enhance awareness and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation / management strategies.