Hana Ayala is President of EcoResorts International—Research and Development in Irvine, California, specialising in the planning of strategic alliances between tourism, conservation and research in the context of national and regional economies, with a special focus on concept design of hotel developments for heritage-centred sustainable tourism. She has a PhD from Masaryk University, and she was formerly on the faculty of the School of Social Ecology at UC Irvine.
John Burton is an ethnographer specialising in rural Papua New Guinean societies. He is a former lecturer in anthropology and sociology at the University of Papua New Guinea. He is a Visiting Fellow in geography at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, and runs a small consultancy business in Canberra concerned with the social appraisal of mining and petroleum projects. He has a PhD from the Australian National University.
Richard Engelhardt is UNESCO Regional Adviser for Culture in Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok. Educated in anthropology, archaeology and history at both Harvard and Yale, he has worked extensively on culture and heritage projects throughout east, south and southeast Asia, specialising in urban conservation and the role of culture in development. Between 1991 and 1994 he was Director of the UNESCO office in Cambodia.
Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop has played a leading role in Pacific women’s research, training and policy identification. Formerly on the staff of the University of the South Pacific’s School of Agriculture and Sustainable Human Development, Adviser for the UNDP in Suva, she has recently been appointed as Co-ordinator of Continuing Education at USP. She has an MA from Victoria University of Wellington and a PhD from Macquarie University.
Epeli Hau’ofa has recently been appointed as Director of the University of the South Pacific’s Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture, after a period as Professor in USP’s School of Social Science and Economic Development. He has a PhD from the Australian National University and is well known for both his fiction and his extensive publications on Pacific regional issues.
Antony Hooper is Professor Emeritus at the University of Auckland. After leaving Auckland he was a Fellow in the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East West Centre in Honolulu for three years. He is now an independent consultant in Sydney, currently spending time as a Research Scholar at the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has a PhD from Harvard.
Kerry James is an ethnographer specialising in Tonga and an independent consultant. Her PhD is from University College London. In recent years she has held research fellowships at the Macmillan Brown Centre, the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East West Centre in Honolulu. She now lives in Sydney.
Shane Jones is chairman of the Poutama Trust and also a Commissioner for the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission.
Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka has an MA in Development Studies from the University of the South Pacific, and has been a lecturer in History and Politics there. In July 1996 he was awarded a USP scholarship for doctoral studies in Political Science and International Relations at the Australian National University, where his dissertation is concerned with the sociopolitical factors that affect the management of forestry in Solomon Islands. He has published papers in journals concerned with development, as well as short stories and feature and opinion articles in regional news magazines.
Langi Kavaliku is Deputy Prime Minister of Tonga and Minister of Education and Civil Aviation. Educated in Tonga, the United States, England and New Zealand, he has a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington. He has served on the governing bodies of many regional organisations, including the Council of the University of the South Pacific and the Standing Committee of Pacific Islands Development Program in Honolulu. He is the author of several articles on education and development and has also published poetry. He is at present a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO.
Russell Marshall has been Chairman of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO since 1990, and is currently a member of the UNESCO Executive Board. He was a Member of Parliament from 1972 to 1990, and held several ministerial portfolios, including Education, Foreign Affairs and Pacific Island Affairs. He is a member of the Victoria University Council (Wellington), and has a BA in Anthropology and a Diploma in Teaching.
Malama Meleisea is Regional Adviser on Social Science for UNESCO in Bangkok. Educated in Samoa, the University of Papua New Guinea and Macquarie University, from where he has a PhD in History, he was the founding Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies in Christchurch before moving to Auckland University to be Director of the Centre for Pacific Studies there. He has published extensively on Samoa and has been President of the Pacific History Association.
Philipp Muller has had extensive experience in Pacific regional organisations, and his services have been recognised by awards of the Order of Australia (AM) and the Cross of Solomon Islands (CSI). Educated in science at the University of Auckland, he was Chairman of the Western Samoa Public Service Commission and a field expert in Hydrology for FAO in Apia before becoming Director of the South Pacific Forum Fisheries in Solomon Islands. He is currently Director of the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Suva.
Robert Norton is senior lecturer in Anthropology at Macquarie University and the author of Race and Politics in Fiji. He has been studying ethnic relations and politics in Fiji since 1966, and has also done field research on social change and local-level politics in both Samoa and Tonga. His PhD is from the University of Sydney.
Marshall Sahlins is Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. His PhD is from Columbia University and he has done extensive field and archival research on both Fiji and Hawaii. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and the recipient of many international awards for his distinguished contributions to anthropology, social theory and Pacific scholarship.
Levani Tuinabua is Chief Executive of the Tourism Council of the South Pacific. Prior to taking this position in 1993 he was Director of Tourism in Fiji for many years. He has a BA from the University of the South Pacific and an MSc in Regional Planning from the University College of Swansea.
Joeli Veitayaki has an MA from the University of the South Pacific, and is a lecturer in that university’s Marine Studies Program. He is at present on study leave for doctoral work at the National Centre for Development Studies, the Australian National University, which is concerned with development issues in artisanal fisheries.
Mali Voi is UNESCO’s sub-regional adviser for Culture in the Pacific, based in Apia. Educated in Papua New Guinea and Australia, he has an MA from Macquarie University and was Registrar of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology before taking his present position. He has been awarded the OBE for cultural services in the Pacific, and a Long Distinguished Service Medal for Education and Cultural Services in Papua New Guinea.