Raised on Jerrinja Wandi Wandian Country, Sam is a human geographer, researcher, and project manager passionate about people, the communities they create, and the environments they live in and alongside.
Sam leads the Program Management for Astrolabe’s sister company, On Country Solutions, supporting partnerships with Traditional Landowners in building Whole-of-Country plans that centre culture, people, and place.
She has extensive experience in local government and its operating environment, having worked for six years in one of Australia’s most culturally diverse communities, Liverpool (Darug and Tharawal Country), on local economic development projects, the Liverpool Innovation Precinct and the delivery of the Western Sydney City Deal.
Sam is currently completing a Master of Arts in Environment, Development and Peace, specialising in Environmental Security and Governance with interests in centring Indigenous-led knowledge and land custodianship, locally-led adaptation, manufactured resource scarcity, and population displacement due to the climate crisis.
Recently, she supported the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in documenting the implementation of climate-smart nature-based solutions to support livelihood resilience and heat action plans for local communities in Nepal.
Sam was also a visiting researcher at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, where she supported the exchange of knowledge through presentations on academic papers and designed and delivered a lesson on environmental security and climate justice for youth program participants.
She has facilitated partnerships with startups, government agencies, advocacy groups, universities, research institutions, small businesses and community organisations. She has managed a diverse portfolio of projects, producing advocacy strategies, grant guidelines, change management plans, community engagement reports and corporate events.
Outside work, Sam loves getting silly doing improv, playing four chords on the ukulele, dancing and attempting to speak Spanish and Tamil.