Contact information:
Telephone: +678 7551933
E-mail: uschi@gillettprestonassociates.com
Messaging: Skype: fishgirl4 | Wire: fishgirl4
Personal:
Nationality: Australian
Experience:
35 years of education and training, coastal fisheries and non-living resources management experience with national Governments, regional technical assistance agencies, international organisations and private consultancy companies in 21 countries.
Projects:
A total of 80 projects completed since 1987 including project designs and audits, management of resources and of projects, monitoring, evaluation and learning, data management and processing, and training and education.
Publications:
Author/ co-author of over 174 publications and technical reports.
Key skills:
- Strong mathematical abilities, including expertise in applied and theoretical statistics: Ursula Kaly was trained in biometrics at the University of Sydney and from there went on to contribute to statistics courses at the University of Auckland (1989-1990) and run the second year biometrics course at James Cook University as part of their Marine Biology curriculum (1992-1997). Since then she has run short courses on data storage and analysis in several Pacific countries, including PNG, Tonga and Tuvalu aimed at helping government and NGO staff to gather, analyse and communicate data. Her main areas of interest lie in logic, sampling and experimental design, uni- and multi-variate statistics and making full use of data that are gathered, given the usual costs and difficulty of data collection.
- Wide-ranging computer skills: Ursula is proficient in a wide range of computer programs, including the Microsoft Office suite and particularly Word, Excel and Access; Statistics programs such as Statistica; and GIS applications such as MapInfo and QGIS; the library software Endnote and software for web pages using html and WordPress. She has used these skills together to create one-stop data systems (e.g. databases for the Australia-Pacific Technical College in 2007, Creel survey database for Tuvalu in 2011, the Fanga’uta Lagoon Management database in 2016, and started the MERL database for the Pacific America Fund scholarship programme in 2020. She has also run many training courses in Word, Excel, Access applications and GIS (e.g. in Tuvalu and Tonga).
- Ability to communicate findings to non-statisticians: Using her skills in statistics and software, Ursula has produced a large number of reports that quickly and effectively show the outcomes of surveys so that managers can move on to the process of management without being bogged-down in masses of data. This includes the development of indicators that can be quickly used to take the pulse in complex situations, such as the Environmental Vulnerability Index (1998-2005) and the development of a system for rapid assessment of the status of coastal fisheries for SPC and, later for the Tuvalu Government with MFAT funding. This work led to databases with pre-determined push-button calculations to populate reports and 2-3 page graphical status reports for rapid decision-making.
- Analytical and problem-solving skills: Ursula is classically trained in logic and Popperian Falsification, as well as having a highly analytical mind able to determine the nature of and solve complex problems in her work. These skills were used to develop an index for characterising the environmental vulnerabilities of 184 states and territories in 2005, requiring massive data collections and complexities to ensure indicators were not overlapping in their meanings. She has carried out or been involved in 25 project designs and 20 projects requiring her to work on MERL frameworks and measures. These projects all required clear thinking and problem solving to achieve the required outcomes.
- Teamwork and collaborative skills: Just about every one of the 79 projects Ursula has carried out or been involved in has required interacting with teams, governments, other organisations and the public and/or communities at all levels of education and experience. Her approach has always been one of communicating clearly with all stakeholders and listening and responding to their requests. This includes face-to-face meetings, coordinating and working in teams in the field, and lately even collaboration by online means.
- Experience in donor analytical design work and data interpretation and reporting: Ursula has worked for a wide range of donors, including governments of 22 countries, UN agencies, other international organisations, NGOs and businesses. This includes 25 project designs in topics that include education, infrastructure, institutional strengthening and community resilience. All of these projects included data analysis, interpretation and reporting. Her publications list include 175 documents, many of which are project reports.