Siska Hester - Manager Climate Change Program Delivery, Climate Health Victoria

100% renewables in the Victorian health system

Siska is an environmental engineer with over 20 years of experience working on sustainability issues. With experience in both the private and public sector, Siska has worked within a range of industries including transport, energy, water and government to deliver sustainability projects. Siska’s breadth of experience covers many facets of sustainability and environmental management including decarbonisation and climate adaptation, waste management, pollution prevention and water efficiency.

Siska began working with the Department of Health in mid-2023 and was heavily involved in the creation of Climate Health Victoria unit and now leads the Program Delivery team. Siska prides herself on her ability to deliver practical projects with tangible outcomes.

Urvi Thanekar - Research Assistant, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne

Exploring opportunities to reduce scope 3 emissions in renewably powered health services

Urvi is a PhD candidate within the Institute of Health Transformation at Deakin University partnering with Barwon Health focusing on reducing their Scope 3 emissions using systems dynamics and economic analysis. Urvi also works with the Climate Catch Lab at the University of Melbourne on projects that intersect climate change, healthcare systems and systems transformation. Urvi is a clinically trained dentist with a master's in health and human services management and has been a part of the Victorian Covid -19 clinical surge workforce. Urvi has clinical and research experience in the field of health promotion and health literacy in the Indo-Pacific region.