Dr. Monica Gerth is the overall project leader of Te Kura o te Kauri. Monica is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at Victoria University of Wellington. Her research focuses on the microbiology of kauri dieback disease — with a particular interest in how the microbes navigate the environment and cause infection.

Monica’s family hails from the east coast of the USA, though her dad was in the army so they were never stationed in one place (or country) for very long. Since moving to Wellington, she has put down firm roots, and considers it her home now. In her spare time she is trying (but mostly struggling) to learn Te Reo Māori.

More information about her research group can be found at: https://molecules-and-microbes.org/

Abigail Sucsy is the national engagement leader and the project administrator for Te Kura o te Kauri. Before taking on this job she did a summer research project on Phytophthora agathadicida with Monica and is now the lab manager for the MME lab. Like Monica, she hails from the east coast of the USA and was born into a moving military family. Also like Monica, she is now a full time resident of  Te Whanganui a Tara. She studied Marine Biology at Victoria University of Wellington before a tap on the shoulder led her into the MME lab and Te Kura  o te Kauri. 

Jeff Jones is the lead developer of the VR experience. Jeff is well grounded in visual storytelling and understands the power of interaction and user lead narrative. Jeff has launched a multitude of successful projects, including being lead developer on a range cross platform experiences using the unreal engine. With each of these projects he has had a particular focus on technological innovation. Through Jeff’s work at Wrestler he has been able to unlock the potential of cross platform experiences understanding the strengths each platform has to offer. Jeff loves to share his knowledge and see people grow as they get introduced to new concepts. He is a high growth individual who loves nothing more than solving complex problems in dynamic environments.

Te Amohaere Ngata-Aerengamate is an educator for Te Kura o te Kauri and did much of the outreach for this year. Her iwi affiliations are Ngāti Porou, Kuki Airani, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Te Amohaere grew up in Auckland but whakapapa to Te Araroa, East Coast. She moved to Wellington from Auckland to complete a Masters thesis, after being inspired by a science talk given by Dr Monica Gerth on Kauri dieback. In addition to her studies, Te Amohaere also worked part-time on the Auckland Council kauri dieback team as a kauri dieback community advisor. Her other interests include art - acrylic painting/drawing, music - composing/singing, sports – rugby union/league. She is the narrator in our VR expereince and wrote and performed the kauri dieback waiata as well!

Conrad Marsh 

Waipoua toku awa
Manganui toku maunga 
Te Roroa toku iwi
Matatina toku marae
Tuoho toku whare tupuna  
Ko Conrad au

Conrad is a  member of the Ambassadors for Te Roroa and DOC in the Waipoua forest. Their role is to provide visitors information about kauri and the relationships and balance they maintain with the rest of the forest. They also monitor visitor behaviour, making sure everyone stays on the boardwalks, cleans their footwear and stays on the tracks when visiting kauri forests. Conrad will be joining us in Auckland as one of our educators.

Chris Pairama is an educator for Te Kura o te Kauri. Chris has strong community ties and is highly experienced in community education and cross-cultural facilitation. He is also heavily involved in efforts to protect kauri, and serves as a member of Kauri Dieback Tāngata Whenua Roopū (TWR). Ko Ngāti Whātua tana Iwi.

Mike Fairhurst grew up in rural New Zealand before moving to the beautiful South Island. He studied at the University of Otago, completing a BSc followed by an MSc focused on protein-protein interactions. Mike is a lab veteran, having started with the group in Dunedin as a Research Assistant with Monica in 2016.
When the lab relocated to Victoria University of Wellington, he decided to make the move back north. In 2019, he gave up the luxurious life of a Research Assistant in order to start his PhD working on understanding Phytophthora GPCRs and their role in host sensing.

Dr. Randy Lacey is originally from the United States, where he earned a BSc from Austin Peay State University and a PhD from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (Go Vols). As a graduate student, he explored the signaling capacity of the plant hormone ethylene in non-plant organisms. Then, as an Intelligence Community Postdoc Fellow at Sandia National Labs in New Mexico, he developed biosensors for the detection of metals in the environment.
Now as a postdoc with Monica, Randy is examining how the soil pathogens Phytophthora agathidicida and Phytophthora cinnamomi sense and navigate their environment with hopes of ultimately developing tools to reduce their spread. In his spare time, he spends it in the outdoors tramping, camping, skiing, and trying to see as much of New Zealand as possible.