Contributors
Ben Bohane is a photojournalist and television producer with over 20 years experience in the Pacific. He has worked for many of the world’s major news organisations and joined PiPP as Communications Director. He has a Masters Degree in Melanesian religion and conflict. More background on Ben can be found via www.wakaphotos.com
Derek Brien is co-founder and executive director of PiPP and also serves as an adviser to the government of Timor-Leste and the g7+ on the post-2015 development agenda. Born in Ireland, he grew up in Australia and has called Vanuatu home for the best part of the last decade.
Mark Evans is a PiPP associate having previously worked with us as senior policy analyst and economist. Prior to that he was a macro-economic advisor at the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu.
Dan Gay is a PiPP associate. As an independent political economist, he specialises in international development and trade issues. He is a consultant to the United Nations and other development agencies. He has worked in the south Pacific, Asia and Africa. He comments regularly in the national and international media.
Giff Johnson is our associate editor focusing on Micronesia. He is also the editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, and serves as a correspondent for Radio New Zealand and Radio Australia. Originally from the United States, he has lived in the Marshall Islands since 1984.
Dan McGarry has been working in the Pacific for over a decade now, assisting in numerous capacities in the development of ICTs in Vanuatu and the Pacific. He has extensive experience in technology policy formulation and implementation as well as in traditional and new media. He still writes software.
Kalafi Moala is our associate editor focusing on Polynesia. He is also publisher and managing director of the Taimi Media Network in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. He is a founding chair of the New Zealand-based Pacific Islands Media Network (PIMA) and co-founder of the Pasifik Media Association (PasiMA)
Kaliopate Tavola is an economist, politician and diplomat. He served as Fiji’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and prior to that as Ambassador to Belgium (also accredited to France, Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg and Greece, as well as to UNESCO and the WTO). He recently served as the first High Level Representative of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. He is a founding member of the PiPP board.
Nic Maclellan is a freelance journalist and researcher. He writes for Islands Business magazine (Fiji) and has contributed as a broadcaster and journalist to Radio Australia, The ABC’s The Drum, Tahiti-Pacifique and other regional media. He has written widely on human rights, development and decolonisation issues in the Pacific.
David Robie is a New Zealand author, journalist and media educator. He is the founding editor of the Pacific Regional Review and is currently director of the Pacific Media Centre at the Auckland University of Technology. He is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics.
Dulciana Somare-Brash is deputy-executive director of PiPP. She holds Bachelor Degrees in political science & international relations and law from James Cook University, Australia. Her experience in politics and development ranges from employment with ABC/Radio Australia in Port Moresby, and later as Senior Research Officer at the Australian High Commission there.
Franz X. Hezel, SJ has lived and worked in Micronesia since 1963. He spent 30 years directing the Micronesian Seminar in Pohnpei, Micronesia and has written widely about social change and its impacts on island communities. His writings can be found on his official blog Where’s Fran?
Frida Bani-Sam, Communication & Network Liaison OfficerFrida initially joined PiPP under the research internship programme. She continues to support the ongoing development of communication activities and maintaining our website. Outside PiPP, she is deputy-chair of the board of Youth Challenge Vanuatu.