Meet the Team
Kirsty Howey
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Kirsty Howey
Kirsty has been Executive Director of ECNT since November 2020, and is an advocate, lawyer, researcher and strategist with over 20 years experience.
She worked as a commercial, litigation, native title, and environmental lawyer for 15 years, including over a decade at a land council representing Traditional Owners in the Northern Territory. As a lawyer, Kirsty led a range of complex commercial negotiations, managed significant projects and was instructing solicitor in numerous pieces of landmark litigation. She has also worked as a political adviser and a legal policy consultant for the private and public sectors.
Kirsty completed her doctorate at the University of Sydney in 2020, which analysed the intersection between the state, Indigenous institutions, the environment and development. She has been the recipient of a number of scholarships and fellowships for her academic work. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, magazines and appeared in local, national and international media.
Kirsty also has a Bachelor of Arts/Laws (Hons) from the Australian National University, and a Master of Laws from the University of British Columbia. She is an adjunct research fellow at Charles Darwin University and on the editorial board of the Australian Environment Review.
Jessica Black
SAVANNA AND FRESHWATER CAMPAIGNER AND VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
Jess has a Bachelor of Law/Arts and a diploma in languages from the University of Adelaide. She was admitted to practice law in South Australia in 2020.
Jess previously worked in native title law. During her time at the Mobile Language Team, she furthered her exploration of effective cross-cultural legal communication.
Throughout uni Jess developed a deep interest in what it takes to build and support strong communities. She learnt a lot through her involvement with a broad range of community groups and organisations including AYCC, Magistrates Court Legal Advice Service and an eclectic range of community arts orgs. She has a particular passion for music and hosted a range of shows with Radio Adelaide.
Most recently she practised as a Lawyer at MPS Law where she assisted claim groups and Registered Native Title Body Corporates from SA and NT with progressing their native title claims and corporate governance.
Jess is particularly interested in the intersectional nature of how we relate to this beautiful country. She is driven by the reality that the Territory is at the coalface of climate change.
Naish Gawen
MINING AND GAS STRATEGIST
Naish has a BA and MA (Research) from Monash University and has extensive experience in activist and community campaigns in Australia and overseas. He has worked as a translator and consultant for NGOs in the area of human trafficking and irregular migration. He has a particular interest in the impacts of mining on human livelihoods, having worked for the Hazelwood Health Study looking at the long-term social impacts of a fire in the coal mine, and is now working on the Environment Centre NT's McArthur River Mine campaign and mining regulatory reform, as well as the gas campaign.
Allana Brown
BIODIVERSITY POLICY OFFICER
Allana has worked across North Australia’s tropical savannas for over a decade. Allana previously worked throughout Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria in roles with government, a national NGO and an Aboriginal Corporation.
Working closely with Aboriginal ranger groups she has provided support for teams undertaking biodiversity surveys, developing monitoring programs, and threatened species management through a strongly two-way science/ cross-cultural lens. Allana is a certified Healthy Country Planning facilitator. Previously with Bush Heritage Australia, Allana partnered with Olkola Traditional Owners on a landscape-scale project to save Alwal – the endangered Golden-shouldered Parrot.
She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Policy and Environmental Management at CDU, and is wholeheartedly committed to achieving improved nature laws for the Territory.
Bree Ahrens
No New Gas Campaigner
Bree joined ECNT after working for over five years in Timor-Leste on a variety of environmental, governance, and labor issues, including the environmental and economic impacts of petroleum dependency. Having seen the grave implications of Australia’s fossil fuel expansion for the rest of the region, she returned to Australia to contribute to the climate justice movement.
Over the last fifteen years working in Australia, Timor-Leste and Indonesia Bree has worked in research, campaign development, translation, and communications. Bree completed her BA and MA (Asian Studies) at the University of Melbourne, and speaks Tetum and Indonesian.
Skei Batten
FINANCE MANAGER
Skei is a born and bred Territorian and proud Kungurrakun woman who has worked in a variety of roles both within Government and private sector.
A specialist in Indigenous Business Development, capacity building and business growth, her priorities are to support the financial wellbeing of ECNT to continue leading the environmental reform agenda required to respond to the significant challenges facing the NT.