Deanne Bird
An environmental scientist affiliated with Iceland’s tourism through work and academic research for more than 20 years.
Biography
Deanne Bird is an environmental scientist and has been affiliated with Iceland’s tourism sector through work and academic research for more than 20 years. She has personal connection to Iceland’s south coast and strong interest in its volcanoes.
Deanne completed a BEnvSc at Cairns’ James Cook University and Sydney’s Macquarie University, which included one semester on exchange at the University of Iceland in 2003. Working in tourism to fund her studies in Iceland, Deanne fell in love the country, its landscape and people. This love resulted in her enrolling in postgraduate studies and in 2010, she was awarded a PhD through a Cotutelle Agreement between the University of Iceland and Macquarie University for her research on the social dimensions of volcanic hazard and risk in southern Iceland.
Deanne’s strong personal interest in natural hazards and how society mitigates, prepares for and responds to these brought her back to Australia to work for an Australian-based natural hazard research centre. From 2010 to 2016, she covered all hazard environments including bushfires, cyclones, floods and heatwaves. However, her love for volcanoes and Iceland took her back to the University of Iceland in 2016 where she furthered her research on human-centred, place-based initiatives aimed at enhancing community preparedness, response and recovery in regional and rural communities along with the tourism sector.
Her passion for authentic community engagement led her to the public service, in a role stemming from the government’s response to the Hazelwood Mine Fire. She now enjoys working as an Emergency Manager with the Victorian Department of Health while maintaining close ties to academia as an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University's Disaster Resilience Initiative and the University of Iceland.
While Deanne is a new guide to Academy Travel, she has extensive experience working in the tourism sector in Cairns, Australia and Iceland. This includes working as an aquarist at the Undersea World Aquarium and as an adventure tour specialist with Arctic Adventures in Iceland.