Back to Current Cohort Maria-Goreti Muavesi
Fiji
Master of Fisheries Policies (alumni)
University of Wollongong
A lawyer by profession, Maria-Goreti is the Senior Environmental Legal Officer for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Oceania Regional Office. Within this role, Maria has set up the Pacific Network for Environmental Law and supported the setup of environmental law associations in Solomon Islands, PNG, and Vanuatu. While her focus is on environmental and natural resources laws, she also has experience in commercial property and corporate legal firms as well as with Fiji's Ministry of the Environment.
Through her community work and mentoring of young women, Maria has seen youth make misinformed life choices and become heavily dependent on others. She intends to establish an initiative that strengthens her community's support of its disassociated youth and guides the youth onto healthy life paths.
Kirsty Ruddock
Director of Water Enforcement Taskforce, Natural Resources Access Regulator, Department of Planning Industry and Environment, NSW
Kirsty has over 20 years’ experience in regulatory law. Prior to her current role, she was the Department’s Director of Compliance and Investigations for major infrastructure, mining, and state projects and the Director of Enforcement (NSW) at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Kirsty has also worked as the Principal Solicitor at a NSW and North Queensland community legal centre that specialises in public interest environmental law, on native title law at the Cape York Land Council, and as a Lecturer in environmental law at James Cook University. She started her legal career at the Australian Government Solicitor working in regulatory and administrative and environmental law and subsequently worked as a lawyer at the Public Solicitors Office of the Solomon Islands and Attorney General’s Office of Samoa.