Claire has recently joined Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) in the role of Director Policy and Planning. ESTA provides Victoria’s 24-hour emergency call-taking and dispatch services for police, fire, ambulance and VICSES. This new role oversees the areas of corporate planning, strategy, investment, reform implementation, reviews and inquiries.

Claire has worked in the emergency management sector for over 15 years, starting off as a PhD researcher with the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. Her PhD research applied human factors principles and organizational psychology concepts to decision making and incident management in bushfire emergencies. Claire then joined Country Fire Authority, working on multi-agency common doctrine, incident management training and leadership programs.

Claire moved to Emergency Management Victoria in 2014, where she established complex multi agency policy and operational projects, including the development of Victoria’s first lessons management framework and establishing the operational function of State Lessons and Evaluation. More recently, she has overseen a variety of reform programs and projects including the Learning Review of the June 2021 Extreme Weather Event, Operating Model Review Implementation, State Control Centre Workforce Implementation and Australian Fire Danger Rating System Implementation.

Claire is passionate about people, continuous improvement and organisational culture. During her career in the emergency management sector, she has typically taken on opportunities to design and direct complex projects that deliver tangible benefits to the sector and the community. Claire has been involved in operational response, led reviews and facilitated post-incident debriefing of many large and small emergency events. This has afforded her a unique perspective into the emergency management system and the factors that support successful organisational change in this sector.