Dr Cathy Oke is Enterprise Senior Fellow in Informed Cities with the Connected Cities Lab, University of Melbourne, focusing on the interaction between urban research, policy and practice for greater impact in cities. She is also the First Vice President of Local Government’s for Sustainability (ICLEI), and has been a Councillor at the City of Melbourne since 2008.

Dr Cathy Oke was the Knowledge Broker at the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub (CAUL) of the National Environmental Science Program, a research fellow at RMIT University and has a PhD in Genetics. Outside academia, Dr Cathy Oke has over 10 years’ experience in communications and project management for environmental consultancies and charities.

As a Councillor, Cathy has represented the Environment and Transport portfolios for the City of Melbourne since 2008. She lead the motion for a climate and biodiversity emergency declaration which was endorsed unanimously by councillors at the Future Melbourne Committee. She is currently the Chair of the ICLEI World Secretariat Board, Director of Tipping Point, co-chair of the Cities With Nature Knowledge & Research Hub, a member of NATURVATION Task Force and an advisor to the Innovate4Cities program of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.