Dr Cathy Oke has over 20 years professional and academic experience in urban sustainability and city leadership. She is a strong advocate for local and regional governments driving action on global environmental issues, and leading research for greater impact from informed decision making.
Cathy is currently Melbourne Enterprise Senior Fellow in Informed Cities in the Connected Cities Lab within the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, and in this role she is a senior advisor on research and innovation for the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. Cathy’s previous role was as Knowledge Broker at the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes (CAUL) research hub, of the National Environmental Science Program.
As a Councillor at the City of Melbourne (2008 – 2020), Cathy was in the Environment portfolio for 12 years and Transport portfolio for 10 years, and as a member of the ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) Global Executive Committee since 2009 and First Vice President (2018-2021), she has active in advocating on behalf of local and sub national governments at six United Nations Conference of the Parties (CoPs)– for climate and biodiversity. Cathy has a Bachelor of Science (marine biology, zoology) Hons (genetics) degree, and a PhD in Molecular Science.
