Community Environmental Monitoring (CEM) is a grassroots association of activist makers, scientists, journalists, academics, artists, designers and much more, brought together by our refusal to accept harmful government and industrial practices polluting the places where we live. Our members come from a range of backgrounds including activism, science, data analysis, art and environmental journalism.
Alison Cheong, Treasurer
Chris Nash, Chairperson
Chris is a journalist and academic. He has worked for ABC radio and television, where he won a Walkley Award, and as an award-winning independent documentary maker. He was previously the Director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Professor of Journalism at Monash University.
Charlie Pierce, Research Coordinator
Charlie is an environmental chemist who has worked in environmental consulting and analytical chemistry for over 45 years. Over this time, he witnessed instances where people suffered loss of amenity and compromised health due to poorly executed developments, uncontrolled industrial emissions and weak enforcement of environmental regulations. Charlie joined Community Environmental Monitoring (CEM) because it was formed to address the inequality between communities and polluters. He has applied his specialist landfill knowledge and in situ monitoring expertise in support of CEM projects.
George Harris, Technical Researcher
Kobra Sayyadi, Blog Producer
Kim Vernon, Member
Luke Bacon, Communications Officer
Luke is an Associate Director for Research, Learning & Impact at the global social impact agency, Purpose. This work builds on a Masters by Research at UTS Design School, exploring how community legal centre teams collaborate and get things done by incorporating an array of information and technologies. Luke was previously the Design and Technology Lead at the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and a civic hacker at the OpenAustralia Foundation, building open source tools to give people new ways to participate in our democracy.
Paul Jeffrey, Secretary
Paul has a background in manufacturing, lighting consultancy and small business.
Wendy Bacon, Editor
Wendy is a journalist, researcher and non-practising lawyer who has been involved in urban environmental issues for many years. She was previously the Professor of Journalism at UTS where she taught investigative and environmental journalism. During the community campaign against Westconnex, she developed an interest in air quality and helped developed the People’s Environmental Impacts Statement to enable community members to participate more easily in responding to complicated and cumbersome environmental impact reviews.