Bethany is the Head of Emergency Communications for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). She is a passionate advocate for strategic communications in emergencies. Bethany has worked as a communications specialist within the Victorian Public Sector for the past 15 years, and joined DHHS after working at Emergency Management Victoria. In the last few years Bethany has led the recovery communications for the Wye River fires, Bourke St Tragedy, Flinders St event and most recently the South West Fires. Bethany also oversees the preparedness and planning for Class 2 Health Emergency Communications and Public Information, and the integration of this into the broader emergency management sector and systems. Bethany is the author of the State Relief and Recovery Communications and Public Information Framework, the first of its kind in Australia.

Ged has been a member of Victoria Police Force for approximately 32 years and is currently Acting Superintendent at the Capability Department. He has performed duties in general operations, disaster management, marine policing, criminal investigations, intelligence and counter terrorism operations. Ged was involved in establishing the Victoria Police Counter Terrorism Coordination Unit and was the project manager responsible for replacing Victoria Police’s metropolitan analogue radio network for a new state of the art digital radio network. Ged is also a member of the Australian Civil Corps and has been a Team Leader for the Post Disaster Response Team. He has also conducted assessments in the Asia/Pacific region regarding national disaster risk management arrangements on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. His qualifications include a Master of Arts (Police Practice), a Master of Professional Education and Training, a Graduate Certificate in Police Management and a Graduate Certificate in Criminal Intelligence.

Melissa is the lead on information and knowledge management at the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience, where she curates content for the Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub and develops professional development events to build and share good practice in disaster resilience. Her strong interest in effective communication and resilience has seen her formulating response and recovery policy for major disasters with Emergency Management Australia, running workshops around the Pacific to help people understand and use seasonal climate outlooks with the Bureau of Meteorology, and visiting villages around Solomon Islands to initiate community-based disaster risk reduction projects with Save the Children. Recently, Mel spent a year developing content for a story-based online learning platform for a global program to eliminate dengue fever.