Dr Holly Faulkner, Senior Post-Doctoral researcher at MaREI Centre
After completing her PhD in Disaster, Risk & Resilience at the University of Canterbury, Holly joined the MaREI Centre as Senior Post-Doctoral researcher. As part of her role, she is working on the DIRECTED project - a Horizon Europe project focusing on reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events and fostering disaster-resilient European societies. The project promotes interoperability of data, models, communication and governance on all levels and between all actors of the disaster risk management and climate adaptation process.
Dr Toni Collins, Associate Professor in Law at the University of Canterbury
Toni is an Associate Professor in Law at the University of Canterbury whose research focuses on law and disasters. She is LEAD's Associate Director and an Associate Researcher with QuakeCoRE(the New Zealand Centre for Seismic Resilience) on a Flagship programme examining the resilience of Wellington’s built area in a large earthquake. She has examined the law on cordons in emergency and non-emergency situations and is currently looking at the impact of the recent Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 on building owners and tenants in relation to earthquake-prone buildings and those that are vulnerable to earthquakes. The other current project is a collaboration with two authors looking at dispute resolution processes in emergencies and learnings from the Canterbury earthquakes. Toni’s interest in disaster law research stems from her work on her PhD completed in 2016, which looked at how commercial landlords and tenants were affected by the cordon around the central business district of Christchurch as a consequence of the Canterbury earthquakes when their leases did not cover inaccessible buildings and neither did the law.
Dr Sulaiman Sarwary, Lead for International Development Programmes at Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
Sulaiman recently completed his PhD in Disaster Law, Risk, and Resilience at the University of Canterbury. His research examined how provisions for public engagement in the legal framework for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Aotearoa New Zealand shape public involvement. He currently serves as the Lead for International Development Programmes at Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand (CAZN), where he oversees partner-led implementation in the Pacific and Southeast Asia in areas such as climate finance, disaster risk reduction, market driven skills, sustainable livelihoods and community resilience.
