Our Trainers
All of RedR Australia's courses are coordinated by our in-house training team and facilitated by our highly experienced local and international associate trainers. Our team have worked for a wide range of United Nations agencies and humanitarian organisations globally, and have many years of field and operational experience in climate-related disasters and conflicts.
Experienced educators, our associate trainers are keen to share their significant real-world experience and help grow your career.
Peter Grzic
Peter Grzic is an international humanitarian and disaster management expert, renowned for his exceptional leadership and cultural proficiency. He is also an experienced associate trainer and has been teaching on RedR Australia’s courses for many years.
Peter has remarkable coordination, liaison and facilitation skills. He has worked for UN agencies, governments, NGOs and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, with experience spanning the Pacific, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Peter loves to share his knowledge with course participants, providing valuable guidance in global humanitarian systems, crisis management and navigating complex environments.
Richard Simpson
Richard has over two decades of humanitarian experience working with both international NGOs and the United Nations. In addition to currently being a Course Coordinator and trainer on the EHP and HEAT courses, and a RedR roster member, he is working independently as a strategic advisor in humanitarian affairs and as a deployable asset. He recently returned from Palestine where he was the director for the INGO peak body (AIDA), representing over 90 INGOs within the humanitarian fora, and in 2022 deployed to Ukraine as country director for CARE. He has worked throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia. With UNOPS and IOM, Richard was a regional coordinator for the Afghanistan Elections and was Chief of Operations for the Iraqi elections in Iran and Australia. He was also part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Timor-Leste.
Listen to Richard on our Humanitarian Conversations podcast.
Talei Tora
Talei Tora is an accomplished communications specialist with 25 years' experience in strategic comms. She has worked across government, development and in private organisations, and shares her considerable experience as a RedR Australia associate trainer.
Early in her career, Talei worked for the Fijian military, followed by the Fijian Ministry of Information, where she worked as a journalist, and a film and television producer. Pivoting to the humanitarian and development sector, Talei has worked with the Australian Aid-supported Market Development Facility, the Australian Government's Fiji Program Support Facility and, most recently, she worked for the Pacific Community, also known as SPC, where she supported their georesources and energy program.
Ulf Edqvist
Ulf is a life-long humanitarian and protection expert with more than two decades’ experience across Europe, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas. He has worked with notable humanitarian organisations, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Australian and Swedish Red Cross societies, the International Federation of the Red Cross and, most recently, the AHA Centre in Indonesia.
He is also a much-loved RedR Australia associate trainer and is always keen to share his knowledge and experience with training participants.
Vuli Gauna
With nearly 30 years' experience in the humanitarian sector, Vuli Gauna is a highly respected expert in disaster preparedness, response and recovery across the Pacific. He has worked for the Fiji, British, Vanuatu and New Zealand Red Cross as well as the IFRC. Vuli leads teams of people during crises, taking on coordination and leadership roles.
Vuli is also a very experienced trainer. He is well known throughout the Red Cross and Pacific NDMO network for his work developing and facilitating training and in the standardisation of response tools such as post-disaster assessment, risk reduction, and disaster contingency planning. At RedR Australia, he also shares his wealth of knowledge and experience on our Essentials of Humanitarian Practice training course.
Warren Johnston
Warren is an experienced trainer with significant experience in security and occupational health and safety (OHS). With a strong background in policing, he is currently Group Leader for Worksafe Victoria.
Warren has served in the New Zealand and Queensland Police Services, and is experienced in frontline policing, team policing, riot squad and arson squad. He is also a RedR Australia deployee, and has deployeed to Samoa to support the Samoa-Australia Police Partnership (SAPP). As a RedR Australia trainer, Warren brings his extensive experience in security and his warm sense of humanity.
Ziad Harb
Ziad has more than 17 years' experience in security management and training and has held leadership roles across the humanitarian, aviation and development sectors in Lebanon and other countries, leading crisis management, risk assessment, and security training. He has also worked in humanitarian demining. Ziad is a committed Associate Trainer with RedR Australia and RedR UK, supporting the Hostile Environment Awareness Training course. Previously, he worked in the private sector in aviation safety, training and leadership.