Who we are

ICAN AUSTRALIA

We are leading the movement for Australia to end its disarmament doublespeak by signing and ratifying the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We are proudly independent, non-partisan and funded by donations from our community of supporters.

While our organisation is made up of a voluntary board, ambassadors and a small staff team, the success of the campaign rests on a broad-based movement for change involving a diversity of people and groups. Everyone has something to contribute.

AMBASSADORS

Sue Coleman-Haseldine

A Kokatha woman who lives in Ceduna in South Australia, Sue Coleman-Haseldine is a nuclear test survivor and outspoken advocate of Aboriginal culture and environmental protection. She was a child at Koonibba Mission when the British carried out nuclear testing at Emu Field and Maralinga in the 1950s and 60s. In 2014, she travelled overseas for the first time to tell 150 governments about the effects of nuclear testing on Aboriginal land, culture and people at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.

Sue is a Co-President of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance and was awarded the South Australian Premier’s award for excellence in Indigenous leadership in 2007 and the 2018 Jill Hudson Award for environmental protection.

Sue participated in a national speaking tour, ‘Black Mist White Rain’, in April 2016. She delivered a statement during the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty negotiating conference at the United Nations in March 2017 and attended the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony for ICAN in Oslo in December that year.

Karina Lester

Karina Lester is a Yankunytjatjara-Anangu woman who grew up on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in South Australia. Her father, the late Yankunytjatjara elder Yami Lester, was blinded by the ‘black mist’ fallout from the Totem 1 nuclear test at Emu Field in 1953.

The Lester family has been a stalwart of nuclear resistance for decades. Karina works with the University of Adelaide’s Mobile Language Team as the Aboriginal Co-Manager and Language Worker, co-hosting the Nganampa Wangka radio show on Radio Adelaide about South Australian Aboriginal languages.

Karina attended the 2015 World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima, Japan and spoke about the consequences of British nuclear testing on her family and Aboriginal people more broadly. Along with her sister, Kunmanara Lester, she travelled with the national Black Mist White Rain speaking tour in April 2016, highlighting the humanitarian impacts of nuclear testing in Australia and the Pacific.

Karina and Kunmanara spoke at the women’s marches to “ban the bomb” in New York and Sydney, respectively, in June 2017. Karina delivered an Indigenous statement to the negotiating conference for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on behalf of 35 First Nations organisations. The statement helped to enshrine the rights of victims and impacted environments in the final agreement, as well as recogni

Scott Ludlam

Scott Ludlam is a writer, activist and former Australian Senator representing the Australian Greens. He served in Parliament from 2008 – 2017, and as Co-Deputy Leader of his party from 2015 – 2017. Scott held the nuclear issues portfolio for nine years, during which time he contributed to campaigns on uranium mining, waste dumping and nuclear weapons. He is currently an occasional columnist for The Guardian and The Monthly, and his first book on ecology, technology and politics will be published in 2020.

He is a long-term supporter of ICAN, co-hosting the Western Australian launch in 2007 and travelling to New York in 2017 for the final session of the ban treaty negotiations. He delivered a statement to the negotiating conference on the day before the Treaty’s adoption.

Robert Tickner AO

Robert has been campaigning against nuclear weapons since he was in his early 20s, firstly as an activist in the environmental movement and then as a Federal Labor MP where he was the convenor of Labor Parliamentarians for a nuclear-free Australia.

Robert was Australia’s longest serving Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, before spending a decade as the CEO of Australian Red Cross. During that time he spoke on behalf of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation at the three international humanitarian conferences in Norway, Mexico and Austria, which led to the negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Robert is a patron of the Tom Uren Memorial Fund and advocates tirelessly for Australia to sign and ratify the Treaty.

Maxine Goodwin

In 1952, Maxine’s father, a Royal Australian Air Force radio technician, was deployed to Onslow, Western Australia, for Operation Hurricane—the first British atomic test in Australia. He was responsible for servicing Dakota aircraft tasked with coastal security monitoring. He later recalled being onboard an aircraft that detected intense radioactivity the day after the detonation.

Maxine has spent more than twenty years researching her father’s story and has contributed to arts projects highlighting the experiences of nuclear test veterans and their families. In 2023, she joined an ICAN delegation to Canberra to highlight the harms caused by nuclear weapons testing and urge the Prime Minister to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In July 2025, Maxine visited the Montebello Islands and Onslow, Western Australia, with a group of artists, writers, researchers and other nuclear descendants to explore the legacies of nuclear testing firsthand.

Imogen Sumbar

Imogen Sumbar is a student at the University of Melbourne who is devoted to environmental and human rights advocacy. She began her endeavours with ICAN Australia as an intern, and from her dedication to the campaign, has continued volunteering as the first Youth Ambassador of the Australian branch.

Imogen first became involved in advocacy as a teenager when organising the School Strike for Climate protests in the Shoalhaven, New South Wales. From this, she was a part of Rachel Sarah’s book ‘Girl Warriors: How 25 Young Activists are Saving the Earth’. When she graduated from high school, Imogen moved to Melbourne to major in Politics and International Studies, and also lived abroad in Germany as part of an exchange program.

Former Ambassadors

Melissa Parke

Melissa Parke is a former Federal Labor member for Fremantle, former Minister for International Development and former United Nations lawyer. She has degrees in business, law and public international (human rights) law. Melissa is a patron of the Tom Uren Memorial Fund, which supports the work of ICAN Australia. She is currently the Executive Director of ICAN International.

Vale Kunmanara Lester

Kunmanara Lester was an ICAN Ambassador, along with her sister Karina Lester, until her passing in June 2021. Kunmanara worked as a translator and interpreter, with a passion for preserving and sharing traditional language.

BOARD

Associate Professor Marianne Hanson – Co-Chair

Associate Professor Marianne Hanson gained her Masters and Doctoral degrees in International Relations at Oxford University, where she focused on international security issues, especially the East-West conflict, strategic studies, and arms control. She has lectured at the University of Queensland for the past 24 years; prior to this appointment, she was a Stipendiary Lecturer at Magdalen College, Oxford University. Between 2000 and 2005, she served on the Australian government’s advisory panel on international security. Dr Hanson joined the ICAN Australia board in 2019.

Tara Gutman – Co-Chair

Tara Gutman is a lawyer and strategist specialised in international law at Lexbridge Lawyers. She has spearheaded initiatives that have shaped government policies to advance legal and humanitarian causes.

She spent 10 years at Australian Red Cross, where, as Legal Advisor in the Humanitarian Law (IHL) Department, she led major international initiatives including supporting the entry into force and universalisation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). She was a member of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Nuclear Weapons Core Group and devised numerous campaigns and advocacy strategies to promote the TPNW for the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. As National Manager of Advocacy and Government Relations, she led the organisation’s engagement with government on crises and natural disasters and continued to advocate for Australia to join the TPNW.

Tara worked in Cambodia supporting the development of a hybrid court to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity (2003-2006) and was a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. She previously worked in Sydney as an arts and entertainment lawyer. Tara is a Board Member of ICAN Australia and Companion House, assisting survivors of torture and trauma.

Roselina Press – Secretary

Roselina is a specialist in strategic communications and advocacy. She is currently the Deputy Chief of Staff & Director of Communications for Leader of the Victorian Greens Ellen Sandell and the Victorian Greens MPs. She has also worked at the Human Rights Law Centre and Oxfam Australia. Roselina is also the Editor-in-Chief of Right Now, an independent media organisation dedicated to Australian human rights (rightnow.org.au). She holds a Master of International Relations (First Class Hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Dr Marcus Yip – Treasurer

Marcus is Emergency Physician in Melbourne, Victoria. He also has a Bachelor of Biomedical Science with Honours and has previously served as Student Representative for the Medical Association for Prevention of War.

Dimity Hawkins AM

Dimity is a co-founder of ICAN, served as an early Director, and has been a core member of the Australian Board since 2006. She now works as Program Coordinator of the Nuclear Truth Project. A leading advocate for nuclear disarmament, nuclear justice, and related social justice issues since the early 1990s, her work spans grassroots organising, public education, and high-level policy engagement in Australia and internationally. Her doctoral research at Swinburne University examined nuclear weapons testing and decolonisation in the Pacific, with a focus on Fiji. In recognition of her contributions to global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, Dimity was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019.

Dr Margaret Beavis OAM

Margie Beavis is a former general practitioner with a strong interest in public health. She teaches at Melbourne University and is the immediate past president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW). She is currently vice president of MAPW and co-convenor of Quit Nukes, a joint campaign of ICAN Australia and MAPW, working with Australian superannuation funds to be nuclear weapons-free.

Dr Daryl Le Cornu

Daryl has 30 years’ experience teaching Modern History and Legal Studies at secondary school level and is currently a textbook writer for both subjects. He has been involved in curriculum development in various capacities at state and national level. From 2013 to 2024, he was a curriculum lecturer at university teaching pre-service history teachers. Daryl completed a PhD on peace groups in World War 1, and he has a passion for teaching about nuclear disarmament, human rights, democracy, and contemporary history.

Victoria May

Victoria is a digital fundraising specialist who joined the ICAN Australia board in 2022, after acting as a board observer as a participant in The Observership Program throughout 2021. Victoria has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Arts from RMIT and a Master of Business from the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT.

Dr Tilman Ruff AO

Tilman Ruff is a public health and infectious diseases physician, Hon Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Board member and past Co-President (2012-2023) of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Nobel Peace Prize 1985), a co-founder and founding international and Australian chair of ICAN. He is a member of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Scientific Network.

Dave Sweeney AM

Dave has been active in policy and advocacy around uranium mining, radioactive waste management and the wider nuclear debate for over four decades through his work with the media, trade unions and environment groups on nuclear, resource and Indigenous issues. Dave was a co-founder of ICAN and views the TPNW as our best way to get rid of our worst weapons. Dave was also a founding member of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance and leads the Australian Conservation Foundation’s national nuclear free campaign.

Talei Luscia Mangioni

Talei Luscia Mangioni is a PhD candidate and Pacific Studies teacher at the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University.

Talei joined the board in 2021.

Dr Ruth Mitchell

Ruth Mitchell is a neurosurgeon at Sydney Children’s Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW. She is currently Chair of the Board of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). She also chairs the board of the Ubuntu Lab, an emerging museum of the humanities. Recently awarded the 2022 Convocation Medal by her alma mater, Flinders University, for her work with ICAN, she was also the 2019 winner of the John Corboy Medal from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons for her advocacy for diversity and inclusion in surgery, and was the inaugural Australian Medical Association Doctor in Training of the Year in 2016. She has previously served as Co-Chair of the ICAN Australia Board, and Vice President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War. Twitter/Instagram @drruthmitchell.

Previous board members

ICAN Australia wishes to acknowledge the advice and assistance of previous Board members, from the first meeting in May 2006 to the present day, in alphabetical order: Richard Broinowski AO, Joseph Camilleri OAM, Daisy Gardener, Jenny Grounds, Leigh Hubbard, John Langmore AM, Jessica Lawson, Nic Maclellan, Fred Mendelsohn AO, Marie McInerney, Kazuyo Preston, Catriona Standfield, Richard Tanter, Sue Wareham OAM, Bill Williams, Tim Wright, Mark Zirnsak

STAFF

Janet Craven—Director

Janet joined ICAN Australia in February 2026 and brings deep experience in public affairs, humanitarian diplomacy and weapons treaties. Most recently, she served as Public Affairs Manager for the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation to the European Union, NATO and Belgium, supporting dialogue on International Humanitarian Law and relevant weapons instruments, including the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and the Political Declaration on the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas. Prior to this, Janet has held senior roles with international humanitarian and development organisations and worked with the Irish Red Cross and the ICRC across Europe and Australian Red Cross across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Email: janet@icanw.org

Jemila Rushton—Campaigner

Jemila has been working with ICAN Australia since 2019. With a background as an organiser, networker and community builder, Jemila has been working to address the interlinkages of militarism, extractivism, and colonialism for over a decade. Jemila represented ICAN Australia at the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW in Vienna in June 2023.

Jemila holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Community Development from Victoria University, Naarm/Melbourne, and is based on the lands of the Peek Whurrong speaking people on the shores of Gunditjmara Southern Ocean sea country in Victoria.

Email: jemila@icanw.org

Tim Wright—Treaty Coordinator

Tim is ICAN’s Treaty Coordinator. He is a member of the ICAN international staff team, overseeing work to promote universal adherence to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. He has been involved in the campaign since it began in 2006. He has degrees in law and arts from the University of Melbourne.

Email: tim@icanw.org

Jesse Boylan—Media and Communications Adviser

For more than two decades, Jesse has worked across photography, video, sound, radio, writing, and advocacy to expose nuclear harm and address environmental and social justice issues. They hold a PhD from RMIT University and teach regularly in the School of Art. Jesse joined ICAN Australia in 2023 and is based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Central Victoria.

Email: jesse@icanw.org

Imogen Sumbar—Social Media Producer

Email: imogen@icanw.org

Leila Mutapcic—Bookkeeper/Administration

War survivor. Passionate about eliminating the use of nuclear weapons and bringing peace and stability to the world. Leila has worked with ICAN Australia since 2019.

Email: accounts@icanw.org

Previous staff

ICAN Australia wishes to acknowledge the contributions of our staff and special project workers since the campaign began, in alphabetical order:

Cat Beaton, Kirsten Blair, Teri Calder, Adam Dempsey, Chrys Gardener, Lachlan Good, Dimity Hawkins, Sarojini Krishnapillai, Jessica Morrison, James Norman, Lavanya Pant, Pauline Renkin, Gem Romuld, Felicity Ruby, Colin Stephens, Dianne Street, Glenn Todd, Mihiri Weerasinghe.