Isabelle oversees our operations and is the friendly face of the Backyard Hub. A former ultra-marathon runner, white water guide, school teacher, firefighter, and baker, French-Canadian Isabelle has called Whāingaroa home since 2007. She is a mother to three adventurous tamariki, and they enjoy camping, hiking, skiing, and trapping together.
Kristel is the National Director of A Rocha and the Karioi Project Manager – prior to this Kristel was a marine and freshwater ecologist at NIWA (NZ) and in American Samoa and Kenya. Kristel has over 20 years of practical biology and community based conservation experience. Kristel has taught field biology in New Zealand and overseas and enjoys applying these skills in a community based setting.
Philip was a lecturer in Biblical Studies and a Senior Research Fellow at Laidlaw College in Auckland, NZ from 2002 – 2016. He has a PhD in New Testament Studies from University of Otago. Prior to that he worked as an accountant in large corporate organisations. He has wide experience in the not-for-profit sector, being Chairman and Treasurer of the MECO (NZ) from 1998 to 2016, and Treasurer of the Asia Theological Research and Development (NZ) Trust since 2007. He was Treasurer (2002-2009) and Vice-Chair (2002-2007) of MECO International. He is the treasurer of A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand and NZ Christians in Science. He now works from home doing contract accounting and Biblical Studies work as well as his own research.
Nicola is a theologian based in Auckland. She specialises in the interface between evolutionary theory and systematic theology and has broad interests also in all issues of public and contextual theology, and especially eco-theology. She wrote Animal Suffering and the Problem of Evil (OUP, 2013), and co-edited Creation and Hope with Andrew Shepherd (Wipf & Stock, 2018). She is currently working on a book on Free Will in relationship to the sciences. Nicola is co-director of New Zealand Christians in Science, and is a chaplain at Maclaurin Chapel at the University of Auckland. She has taught theology in the US and NZ and is currently an adjunct PhD supervisor for Flinders University, and a research fellow at St Johns College. She worships at All Saints in Ponsonby.
Iris is the Operations Manager for A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand, and provides operational support to the Karioi Project and the Eco Church Aotearoa project. She has a background in risk management, information systems management and international development. Iris previously co-directed a study abroad programme in Belize that explored the nexus of biblical faith, justice, ecology, and sustainable development. She later worked for an international NGO focused on humanitarian relief, education and peacebuilding in Indonesia. She currently lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington with her husband, Philip and their two boys.
Irene is on the organising committee for the Wellington local group of A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand. She spent far too long studying in her younger years (horticulture, economics and theology) and not enough time planting trees, and is making up for lost time now. Irene and her husband, Terry live on a 5 ha bush block near Paraparaumu, and are thankful every day for being able to live amongst God’s gifts of bush, garden and sea. She works at the Ministry for the Environment when she is not planting trees.
Please see here for more information about the Wellington local group, or email [email protected] to get in touch with Irene.
