The 2026 Iain McCalman Lecture

Communities in an era of compounding disasters: stories of hope from the Northern Rivers

The Iain McCalman Lecture celebrates SEI co-founder and former co-director Iain McCalman’s dedication to fostering and pioneering multidisciplinary environmental research. The lectures aim to highlight the work of early to mid-career researchers working across disciplinary boundaries to impact both scholarship and public discourse. In 2026, Dr Rebecca McNaught will be presenting the Iain McCalman Lecture titled Communities in an era of compounding disasters: stories of hope from the Northern Rivers.

About Dr Rebecca McNaught

Dr Rebecca McNaught is a Research Fellow - Rural and Remote Health with the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. She is based at the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore, NSW - a region at the epicentre of compounding disaster events.

Dr McNaught has over 20 years of experience working with governments, NGOs and communities on climate change adaptation and disaster risk management across the Asia/Pacific region where she worked for the Red Cross and United Nations Development Program. She was a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment report and the Australian Government's 2025 National Climate Risk Assessment. She currently Co-Chairs the 'Sustainability, Climate Change and Health Collaboration' at The University of Sydney. Locally, she is a founding member of the Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance, a prior board member of not-for-profit Plan C and President of the South Golden Beach New Brighton and Ocean Shores Community Resilience Team.

You can read and listen to Rebecca’s work at the following links:

• Volume 2, 2025, The Disaster Recovery Almanac

• Articles in The Conversation

• This July 2025 episode of The Changemakers podcast

• McNaught, R., Pittaway, E., Bethune, L., Meade, D. & Longman, J. (2025) Governance, collaboration and community organising in rural Australia: women’s experiences and contributions to community health and well-being in the Northern Rivers, Australia floods, Women’s Health Journal

• Rebecca McNaught, Johanna Nalau, Rob Hales, Emma Pittaway, John Handmer, Jean Renouf (2024), Innovation and deadlock in governing disasters and climate change collaboratively - Lessons from the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, Science Direct

Join us on Monday 2 March, 2026, for an evening of knowledge-sharing, canapes and networking.

Header photo: A meeting of the Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance. Supplied by Kathie Heyman