Leadership

Dr. Vanda Rounsefell

President & Executive Member (Adelaide)

Vanda has a background in wholistic & environmental general medical practice. In 2000, she expanded her interest from restoring individual health to that of larger scales - housing, landscapes, cities and countries. This led to private involvement and research into ecovillages and sustainable living, then sustainable death practices. Inspired by this she lead the establishment at Aldinga Arts-EcoVillage of the first restoration burial ground under the new South Australian legislation. She set up Ecoweb Human Ecology Services, an eco-counselling consultancy, and wrote a PhD entitled “From EgoCity to EcoCity : an ecological, complex systems approach to humans and their settlements”. She trained with and served on the Australian Board of The Natural Step, a powerful sustainability model for business, industry and general application.

Kevin Hartley

Secretary, Treasurer & Executive Member (Adelaide)

Kevin Hartley is the Founder, Project Director and CEO of Earth Funerals. He has more than 20 years of experience in the funeral and cemetery industries, giving him a broad and deep understanding of the sector.

Working with the late Hon. Dr Bob Such (Independent MP for Fisher) and a community group (Natural Earth Burial Society), he contributed to the lobby for legislative changes to establish natural burial grounds. Later, in 2016, he played an advisory role in establishing the first private natural burial ground at the Aldinga Arts-EcoVillage in South Australia.

Kevin has won awards for his innovative bio-coffin designs and is considered an authority on natural burials.