FOUNDING DIRECTOR AND BOARD TREASURER

Alix Livingstone is the Founding Director of Defend the Wild. She is motivated by a desire to address the complex challenges confronting Australian wildlife. Alix possesses a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to collaborating with various stakeholders on the ground to ensure that solutions can be found that benefit wildlife, ecosystems, and communities.

Alix is highly skilled in crafting high-impact public awareness campaigns aimed at reshaping public perceptions and driving positive change. She actively participates in lobbying efforts targeting Government and peak industry bodies to advocate for legislative and policy reforms that prioritise the welfare of communities, wildlife, and the environment.

Alix spearheaded the development of Defend the Wild's Dingo campaign, which was featured on ABC's 7.30 program, shedding light on the government-sanctioned treatment of Dingoes across Victoria. Additionally, she played a pivotal role in launching the #DropCroc campaign, featured on Channel 10's 'The Project,' unveiling the practice of factory farming Saltwater Crocodiles under the guise of conservation.

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND BOARD SECRETARY

Caitie is the Communications Director at Defend the Wild and Secretary to the Board. She is driven by a deep commitment to protecting Australia’s unique and diverse ecosystems, the wildlife within them, and supporting the communities that surround them.

Through her communication skills, Caitie develops effective strategies to educate audiences, deliver solutions, and drive successful campaigns. She accomplishes this by managing Defend the Wild's social media content, delivering university lectures on the impacts of wildlife persecution, and producing films on Australian wildlife conservation, including the 2023 short film Skin Deep. Additionally, she is Co-Producer and Assistant Director of the forthcoming dingo documentary Native Pest.

Since 2020, Caitie has organised multiple fundraising events in the animal and environmental protection realm. Most recently, she organised the ‘Defend the Dingo’ fundraiser, raising over $19,000 for the First Nations Dingo Forum in September 2023. Following this, Caitie was asked to Co-Project Manage the forum, which resulted in the writing and signing of the first ever National First Nations' Dingo Declaration.

DIRECTOR OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

Sonya Takau is a Jirrbal Rainforest Aboriginal woman living in Tully, Far North Queensland. The dingo is highly significant to Sonya and her family. To Sonya, the dingo is kin, and she has a cultural obligation to protect them from harm. As well as Sonya’s cultural ties to the dingo, she has a particular personal passion for the species and shares her home with an orphaned wild-dingo named Bina.

Sonya is the director of Dingo Culture, a platform dedicated to representing the Aboriginal perspective on the dingo, which has been drowned out for the past 233 years. Dingo Culture’s mission is to create legislative change to recognise and protect dingoes as culturally significant animals.

In 2023, Sonya played a key role in bringing about the first of its kind National Inaugural First Nations Dingo Forum, which brought together First Nations people from across the country to have their say on current dingo management across the country. At the conclusion of the forum a historic National First Nations Dingo Declaration was produced, which outlined the cultural significance of the dingo and called for a new, non-lethal, model - caring for Dingoes on Country.

HABITAT DESTRUCTION ADVISOR

Jailene Santana is the founding director of Rewild for Resilience, where she works with landholders on projects to restore ecological values to help them increase resilience against the impacts of climate change. She also consults and conducts research on sustainable development issues. Jailene has a background in Environmental Policy, Economics and Sustainable Development, as well as Environmental Conservation.

She has expertise on the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and food security. She has a Bachelor of Arts in International Environmental Studies, a Master of Science in Environment and Sustainable Development, and a Master of Public Policy.

Jailene is passionate about human rights, the rights of nature and wildlife, and educating the public about how nature is inextricably tied to our economic system. She is also currently working to specialise in Biodiversity Finance and is currently working with a landholder to transition their property from a cattle property to a commercially successful native food orchard.