The Claire Zara Memorial Oration
The Claire Zara Memorial Oration is an annual keynote address and a headline feature of the annual Emergency Management Conference (EMC).
Previous Claire Zara Oration speakers include:
2015 – Liz Broderick, Sir Angus Houston and Dominic Lane, ACTFR Commissioner
2016 – Prof Carolyn Taylor, CFA Culture Report
2017 – Mary Barry, Our Watch CEO
2018 – Jerill Rechter, VicHealth CEO
2019 – Tracey Spicer, Reporter
2020 – Lori Peek, University of Colorado Boulder
2021 – Niki Vincent, Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner
2022 – Chyloe Kurdas, AFLW pioneer & Red Cross Diversity and Inclusion
2023 – Michael Morgan, Deputy Commissioner – Fire Rescue Victoria
2024 – Margaret Moreton, Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience
2025 – Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Leading prevention of violence against women scholar (Video available)
2026 – Professor Michelle Villeneuve, Deputy Director of the University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy and an Australian Research Council Fellow.
Who was Claire Zara?
Claire Zara was a passionate researcher, journalist, and advocate. Following the devastating 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, she pioneered ground-breaking research on how gender impacts the way men and women experience, survive, and recover from disasters. Her work identified that the risk of family and domestic violence spikes significantly after disasters, a crucial insight that was part of the foundation of Gender and Australia, and the organisation we are today.
