Well-known com­mu­ni­ty leader and long-term Alice Springs res­i­dent Jim­my Cock­ing will assume the role of Desert Knowl­edge Australia’s (DKA) Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer from Mon­day, 4 July 2022. Jim­my replaces DKA’s pre­vi­ous CEO Dr Dan Tyson, who served in the role for near­ly three years.

Jim­my has lived in Mparn­twe (Alice Springs) since 2008, and has exten­sive expe­ri­ence work­ing with local com­mu­ni­ty-based and region­al organ­i­sa­tions. His skills, pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence and local knowl­edge will help strength­en DKA’s efforts to advance Cen­tral Aus­tralia, and advo­cate for the region and its people.

Over the past two decades, Jim­my has held senior posi­tions at organ­i­sa­tions work­ing to cre­ate bet­ter out­comes for remote and region­al Aus­tralia. He has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in eco­log­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment, and cre­at­ing eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple liv­ing in Australia’s arid zone.

Jimmy’s pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence and per­son­al val­ues are strong­ly aligned with DKA’s strate­gic focus areas in socioe­co­nom­ic devel­op­ment and envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

Inter­im Chair Chris Fry wel­comed Jimmy’s arrival, and the exper­tise and com­mu­ni­ty rela­tion­ships he brings to the role, say­ing, ​“The DKA Board wel­comes Jim­my to the team. We antic­i­pate that his appoint­ment marks the new begin­ning of a robust jour­ney to progress remote and desert Australia.

“I thank Dr Dan Tyson for his role in estab­lish­ing DKA’s recent activ­i­ties in research, water secu­ri­ty, renew­able ener­gy, lead­er­ship and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and look for­ward to work­ing with Jim­my on expand­ing these ini­tia­tives and more, with renewed com­mit­ment to Cen­tral Australia.”