Beth has held key humanitarian coordination roles in a range of peace operations and humanitarian response contexts. After surviving the bureaucracy of large international NGOs and the United Nations, she co-founded Humanitarian Advisory Group in 2012. Beth has worked in the humanitarian sector specialising in civil-military coordination and humanitarian reform for the last two decades and has field experience in Afghanistan, Liberia, Tonga, Costa Rica, Laos PDR, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. Whilst working with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) in Afghanistan Beth developed humanitarian civil-military coordination guidance, was involved in implementing humanitarian reform and worked alongside the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority. Beth also has experience working alongside host governments, with local and international NGOs, and has been on short-term deployments to Pakistan, Solomon Islands, and Sri Lanka.
Beth was a Fulbright Scholar in 2019 spending three months at the US Naval War College with the Humanitarian Response Program team. Beth has co-authored publications on the protection of humanitarian personnel, peace and development in Iraq, the role of women in countering violent extremism and drafted the Australian Guidelines for the Protection of Civilians. Beth’s most recent publications include the chapter ‘Humanitarian Values and Military Objectives’ in Ethics Under Fire: Challenges for the Australian Army, and From Principle to Practice: Protecting civilians in violent contexts. Beth has a Master of Development Studies and is a graduate of the Humanitarian Leadership Program. In 2011 Beth was awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal by the Australian government and is currently Australia’s representative on the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel on Women, Peace and Security.
