The Landcare Australia Executive Team
Chief Executive Officer
Dr Shane Norrish
Dr Shane Norrish is chief executive officer of Landcare Australia. Shane commenced with Landcare Australia in 2007 in the role of Landcare Farming Manager. Since then he has managed Landcare Australia’s Landcare Farming program, significant revegetation biodiversity projects, and partnerships focused on the agriculture and land management sectors.
Major projects include the Durness Borland Landcare Corridor at Tea Gardens NSW, Living Landscapes at Bundanon NSW, Conservation Reserve in Victoria’s Wimmera and Landcare Australia’s role as a Service Provider for the Australia Government Green Army and 20Million Trees programs.
During his career, Shane has worked across a wide range of agricultural industries with a key objective of supporting projects that integrate natural resource management and conservation with improved productivity.
Prior to working for Landcare Australia, Shane’s agronomic research background focused on interactions between soil properties, crop nutrition and seasonal rainfall variability. He has a strong history of participatory on-farm research working closely with farmers and their advisors. The majority of his work on dryland cropping and sugarcane projects addressed the interface between productivity, resource management and environmental issues.
Shane has also worked on an Australia aid project in India addressing food security, natural resource assessment, and monitoring and evaluation of alternative crop sequences.
He holds a PhD in crop agronomy from the University of Western Sydney.
In April 2018, Shane was appointed CEO of Landcare Australia. In this role his vision is to substantially grow the strength of Landcare community groups and networks and establish landcare as the preferred delivery partner for all stakeholders.
Chief Operating Officer
Janet Davison
Janet Davison is Landcare Australia’s Chief Operations Officer and Company Secretary and is responsible for the corporate functions of the organisation including finance, risk, compliance, and human resources.
A Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA), Janet has over 20 years of experience as a commercially focused Financial Controller. Her previous roles include serving as Company Secretary / Financial Controller for an ASX-listed hospitality group, as well as holding the position of Financial Controller at several media and advertising agencies.
Janet is a member of the Finance and Audit Committee of the Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA), of which Landcare Australia is a founding member.
Janet’s passion for sustaining and supporting the natural environment comes from her belief in the physical and mental health benefits derived from spending time in nature.
Stakeholder Engagement Manager
Karen Walsh
Karen Walsh leads Landcare Australia’s stakeholder engagement activity with government relations, engagement with the landcare community, and support for the First Nations Landcare Working Group.
Previously, Karen worked as a consultant for a boutique consultancy firm, as a Senior Engagement Lead, where she provided advice on commercial and procurement business activities to the Australian Government.
Karen graduated with a double degree at the University of Canberra, achieving Honours level with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and a Bachelor of Commerce, leading to her working for over 15 years with the Australian Government. Karen worked more than 10 years with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry where she spent almost four years as the Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Programs Team, managing the Australian Government’s $250M Agriculture commitment under the Natural Heritage Trust Account.
Throughout her career, Karen has held a variety of roles within the agriculture portfolio. She served as the Director of the Farm Household Allowance and a Director establishing the Regional Investment Corporation. Karen also led the establishment of the first Concessional Loans scheme for Australian Primary Producers, supported taxation concessions and the assistance package for Australian farmers, resulting from the suspension of the live cattle trade to Indonesia.
Karen’s love of the land and sustainability comes from having grown up on the land on the family farm in Taralga, NSW.
Director of Marketing and Communications
Melissa Higgins
Melissa Higgins is the Marketing and Communications Director for Landcare Australia, collaborating with the team across all brands and programs, and supporting government, philanthropic, and corporate partnership activities.
With over 30 years of extensive experience, Melissa excels in brand management, marketing, communications, media relations, event management, sponsorship, digital, strategy and stakeholder engagement.
Melissa’s diverse background includes holding senior marketing and communications positions across a variety of industries, including in book publishing, music industry, property and advertising. Melissa has been with Landcare Australia since 2009, taking a short break before returning 2019. She leads an experienced team that delivers specialised communications advisory services to our partners and the landcare community.
Committed to empowering landcarers, Melissa is passionate about supporting people to create partnerships, share their stories, and be recognised for the work they do to care for the environment and their community.
Head of Corporate Partnerships
James Link
James Link manages the corporate partnerships program at Landcare Australia, where he leads the development of mutually beneficial partnerships that drive positive environmental and community outcomes.
With over 15 years of experience in the not-for-profit environment sector, James has held previous roles in the water industry, building partnerships and managing behaviour change programs to effectively drive water conservation during the millennium drought.
Before pursuing his purpose-driven environmental career, James studied a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Marketing at Monash University.
With a keen interest in the natural environment, James seeks to ensure commercial outcomes are achieved for corporate partners while also creating tangible positive impacts for the environment and those that seek to protect and enhance it.
Head of Landscape Restoration and Chief Remote Pilot
Katie Selhorst
Katie is Landcare Australia’s Chief Remote Pilot enhancing the organisation’s survey and monitoring capabilities through using drone technology, imagery analysis and spatial statistics. This allows Landcare Australia to develop better field programs, support and build capability of landcare groups and more efficient monitoring datasets, particularly for vulnerable species populations.
Katie holds a Masters in Conservation Biology from the University of NSW, Australia, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Minor in Environmental Science from Wright State University Dayton, Ohio USA.
Katie has worked in various disciplines within several ecological regions in Australia and specialises in program development and implementation. Her extensive field consultancy work includes ecological and land management for over 12 years within Australia and three years of conservation biology work in the USA. With a unique education and career to date, Katie has developed an expansive skillset for implementing multidisciplinary conservation management, restoration, and research programs.
Katie is a passionate conservation biologist with extensive skills in land management. Her love for the environment stems from her upbringing in regional USA, where she spent time exploring the landscape.