Debbie Early, PhD
Resilience Communicator and Innovative Steward
Dr Deborah Early's holistic resilience work sits at the intersection of public and environmental health, regenerative tourism and emergency management. She is an accomplished speaker and author across global and regional platforms, including those for urban resilience as well as climate and outdoor resilience initiatives.
Expertise:
Dr Early's expertise is sought by forward-thinking leaders seeking to implement multi-disciplinary, real-world impact that bridges formal behavioral science, urban-rural ecology and holistic resilience approaches, especially those affecting mothers and children. She is visionary in green-blue and relational infrastructure and an internationally recognised IOC-UNESCO OceanExpert, specifically in the emerging fields of Ocean-Human Health and One Health (the overlap of human, veterinary and environmental health). Working across seascapes, cityscapes, cultural terrains, and scentscapes, Dr Early has mapped both inner emotional landscapes and outer environments to create immersive sensory experiences. Her current work aims to ensure ecosystems are not just “blue” or “green” but also socially resilient and capable of quick recovery from crises and disruption.
Services:
Resilience and proactive adaptation are crucial for surviving and thriving amid constant, often disruptive, changes in the environment, economy and the personal lives of individuals within communities.
Dr Early offers:
- Moving Awareness to Action for Adaptation
and
- Caring for People and Place Treasurers
Together these support transdisciplinary leaders seeking innovative and practical approaches to future-focused co-design and implementation.
Relevant Previous Experience
Dr Early's international career has focused on supporting resilience in women's health, maternal-child health and sustainability. She has contributed to several international expert advisory groups and worked across four continents, in numerous different types of organisations and within a variety of industry sectors. From these experiences she draws both professional and personal learnings regarding resilience and recovery from disruption.
Education
- PhD (pharmacological toxicology and placentology)
- MMedSc (mycotoxicology and maternal-child health)
- PGCert.P.R.&T. (ocean-human health and DRR)
- Diploma in Holisitic Health (including e.g. Rongoā Māori, Ayurveda and Mind-Body-Spirit practices)
- Diploma as a ProFemme Practitioner
Giving Back & Interests
With a proven track record of being team-orientated and adaptable, Dr Early's early experiences were initially shaped growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and explorers. For over 30 years, she has been a devoted volunteer dedicated to youth empowerment, STEAM literacy as well as nature-based education for women and girls. She has served as an environmental steward through planting 2,500+ trees and she serves pro bono for an international non-profit protecting medicinal and aromatic plants. In addition, for more than three decades, she has continuously uplifted lives through supporting a Sub-Saharan non-profit caring for under-served children and elderly women.
Known locally, as The Marlborough Mermaid she is a voice for ocean-human interconnectedness. A former surfer, in her free time she now enjoys swimming, hiking, nature photography and creating olfactory art.