Dr Stephen van Leeuwen

Dr Stephen van Leeuwen is Assistant Director, Science within Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Dr van Leeuwen is also the Partnership Manager for the Department’s Science function with responsibilities for developing collaborative relationships to enable biodiversity research in Western Australia. These collaborations are principally with the resources sector, Traditional Owners, academic researchers and through Commonwealth or State government funded initiatives.

Dr van Leeuwen is a Wardandi man of the Noongar Nation with strong links to Country in the Busselton and Margaret River areas of south west Western Australia. He represented his family on the Noongar Negotiating Team for the South West Native Tile Settlement and is a representative of the South West Boojarah Native Title Working Party. Dr van Leeuwen is committed to engage collegially in relationships with Traditional Owners and other land managers to deliver innovate and enduring outcomes for biodiversity management on Country that also deliver significant and enduring benefits to community.

Dr van Leeuwen is a member of numerous boards and advisory panels including as a Federal Ministerial appointee to the Commonwealth’s Department of the Environment and Energy’s Indigenous Advisory Committee, the Management Panel for the Great Victoria Desert Biodiversity Trust and Parks Australia’s South-west Marine Park Advisory Committee. He also holds State Ministerial appointments to the Western Australian Threatened Ecological Communities Scientific Committee and the Pilbara Environmental Offset Fund. Dr van Leeuwen is also a member of the NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub Indigenous Reference Group, NESP Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub’s Research Executive Group, TERN Surveillance Advisory Group and the Indigenous Working Group to the Ecological Society of Australia