Deborah Early, PhD
Communications Advisor and Innovative Steward
Deborah Early (PhD, MMedSc, PGCert.P.R.&T.) is an experienced communications professional with a multi-disciplinary background who drives high-value impact across global industries.
Impact:
Between 2020 and 2025 Dr Early was a regular contributor for a UK-based design journal with subscription of over 30,000, she has designed interactive (Australian) digital curricula (e-teaching) as well as hosted, and lead international virtual events, bridging the gap between research and practice, especially at the intersection of public health, environmental health and blue tourism. She served on the (USA) organising committee for a 30-country international virtual conference (181 attendees, 48 speakers) and has experience presenting at international nature-city-design festivals and recreation summits, including e.g. a virtual women's hiking summit featuring 36 women leaders across 9 countries (300+ attendees). In 2025 she served as part of the organising committee, and as MC, for an in-person Marlborough (NZ) event with approximately 80 attendees. These intercultural activities and experiences help build bridges for resilience through high-impact, multi-layered engagement.
Expertise:
Dr Early is a 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.
Her holistic resilience work, sought by future-focused leaders, 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 place attachment, urban resilience as well as climate and outdoor resilience initiatives.
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, communications and implementation.
Relevant Previous Experience
Dr Early's initial, international career 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
Repeatedly inspired, and mentored, by Mother Nature her academic education has included, but is not limited to:
- PhD (pharmacological toxicology and placentology)
- MMedSc (mycotoxicology and maternal-child health)
- PGCert.P.R.&T. (Human-Ocean Health and Disaster Risk Reduction)
- 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 contributed to 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.