People

Sara began as Director of the Vic Hub in September 2024. A strong advocate for women and next-gen leaders, Sara is the recipient of a number of awards and scholarships, and is passionate about building diversity and know-how into the thinking of current and next-generation scientists and innovators who work in farming, agriculture, food security and the rural industries.

In her career she has held roles as a Board Director, in state and federal government, and leadership roles a farming systems group and RD&E groups. Learn more about our new Director.

Rhiannan joined the Vic Hub in September 2024 with a strong background in agriculture, project management and research. Her experience spans roles at Riverine Plains Inc. (the Vic Hub’s NE Node) and Swan Hill Chemicals, where she developed expertise in managing communications, organising extension events and driving sustainability in farming.

Read more about Rhi’s journey and her commitment to advancing agricultural innovation and community engagement.

Sam joined the Vic Hub in October 2022, as part of the Hub’s expansion. Since graduating from Dookie Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Agriculture), her career has focused around the two things she adores: agriculture and communications.

Aside from her love of Australian ag, dictionaries, kelpies and cheese, see more about who leads our Comms .

Emma joined the expanding Vic Hub as our Admin Assistant in January 2023.

She brings a career background in property-law administration, along with a range of diverse administration roles that have allowed her to build a proactive, efficient work approach.

Read more about this waterfall-chasing, Lindt-chocolate loving admin whiz, who also volunteers on a Perendale stud farm at Goughs Bay, near Lake Eildon, in her spare time.

Priscilla came to the Vic Hub in September 2024 with a strong background in rural business accounting – and before that, nearly 11 years of running a cake-decorating business.

Please come back for more information soon.

Peter has extensive experience of working in drought-related regions, including Africa, Latin America and closer to home in Western Australia. Read more about our Victoria Soils Co-ordinator here.

This position is funded by the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) Climate-Smart Agriculture Program.

Bow joined the Vic Hub in mid-October 2023. He has an interest in legislative compliance around safety and the environment, as well as agricultural and natural systems management. Read more about our Innovation Broker.

This position is funded by Agrifutures Australia.

Rebecca leads the small, expert team of Knowledge Brokers who combine scientific and communications expertise for the Vic Hub. Read more about Rebecca and her expertise in integrating knowledge to create new understanding here.

As well as being one of the Vic Hub’s Knowledge Brokers, George is a post-doctoral researcher in the QAEL at Deakin University. Read more about one of our Knowledge Brokers.

Senior Research Fellow (Climate and Drought Studies)

Te'o Lau Dr Viliamu Iese has a long career across climate-change adaptation and disaster risk management (both extreme and slow onset events), with skills and expertise in sustainable agriculture, food-system resilience, climate change and its effect on agriculture, agro-biodiversity and developing resilience of communities and industries.

Read more about this Samoan chief – denoted by the title “Te'o Lau” –  who holds a PhD in Climate Change from the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development, and has 52+ peer-reviewed publications to his name.

John was appointed independent Chair of the Vic Hub's Investor Oversight Committee (IOC) in November 2024.

Please come back for more information soon.