This week we chat with Kari Arbouin, CQUni's Associate Vice-Chancellor for Townsville and North West Queensland Region. We hear how Kari grew up in Glasgow in Scotland where she lived in a 270-year-old castle manse and dreamed of becoming an orthopaedic surgeon. We learn how she eventually studied nursing and shocked her parents when she bought a one-way ticket to Australia with plans of spending a few months down under. We hear how a stint nursing in the outback town of Julia Creek led her to her husband and she explains how the rural town became the family home for a number of years. We learn about Kari's health roles that eventually prepared her for a career in universities, firstly at JCU and more recently at CQUni in Townsville. We also discover her unusual skills in bog snorkelling and even hear her attempt an Aussie accent - you can decide if she was successful.

This week we chat with Kirt Hainzer, a CQUniversity agriculture researcher with a special interest in agricultural value chains of developing economies who is currently working in Papua New Guinea. We hear how this son of an Austrian chef developed an interest in food from living in the back of restaurants in Australia and later volunteering at OzHarvest to help reduce food waste. We learn that on his first solo travel experience at the age of 13 he went AWOL from school in Austria and spent two months enjoying a London summer. We also hear how he later created edible landscapes for celebrities in LA. We also discover how his love of travel (especially in the driver's seat of a VW van) has shaped his career direction.

This week we chat with Kirsty Leo, a CQUniversity Nursing lecturer and proud Indigenous woman from Rockhampton. Kirsty talks about her life as a third generation meatworker before heading into the area of Indigenous health. She shares about her varied nursing career and about fitting family around a career. Kirsty talks about the alarming Indigenous health statistics that Australians have become complacent about and the need to keep conversations happening. She talks about what NAIDOC Week 2018 means to her and about the important female role models in her life. She also shares about being unapologetic about addressing the 'hard' conversations.

This week we chat with CQUni's Dr Adele Baldwin who is a Nursing and Midwifery Senior Lecturer at CQUniversity in Townsville. Adele shares about her extensive 30-year career working in nursing and midwifery, from the early days as a hospital-trained nurse through to her more recent role in academia. She shares her passion for working with students to help them create a better future and her drive to contribute to meaningful research. She sheds light on her recent 'prison project' where midwifery students play a part in addressing the needs of pregnant incarcerated women. We also learn about her 'Cradle to Grave' ethos in regards to women's health. Finally, we hear about her travel experiences in Malaysia and in the then Soviet Union.

This week we chat with CQUni's Dr Emma Jackson who is researching seagrass restoration in the Gladstone region. Emma shares about growing up in Blackburn in Lancashire England where her childhood dream was to be a tree surgeon until a trip to Australia in her late teens put her on a path to study marine biology. You'll hear how she enrolled in the University of Stirling in Scotland where she learnt to dive in a very thick wetsuit and later did her Masters and a PhD in seagrasses as an important habitat for fisheries. Emma shares about packing up the family in 2013 and heading to Queensland for a position with CQUni where she discovered the perfect location to research seagrass restoration - Gladstone. She talks about seagrasses being the 'Kidneys of the Great Barrier Reef' and their importance to coastal communities. Emma also gives us an insight into her passion for sailing and her recent purchase of an old wooden sailing boat which has received a few odd looks from the locals.

This week we chat with CQUni's Adam Rose, a PhD researcher into water quality. Adam shares about his childhood obsessions with fishing and crabbing which eventually laid the foundations for his career in water research. In fact, as a 13-year-old he recalls helping CQUni researchers in his home town of Gladstone catching specimens. However, we hear it took a while for him to come around, studying both engineering and accounting, before returning to his love of the water and pursuing environmental science. Adam also shares about his current Baffle Creek research project and his passion to debunk the bottled water phenomenon. He talks about the process of feeling comfortable as a researcher and being proud of his regional roots.

This week we chat with CQUni's Professor Andrew Taylor-Robinson, an immunologist and expert in infectious diseases. We hear how academia is almost part of his DNA as he shares about his family of professors. Andrew tells us about one of his first jobs in a pathology lab investigating faecal samples at the tender age of 17, until his promotion to the urine bench (which was much better). We also learn about his research into mosquito-borne diseases and the work that goes into vaccine development. We hear about recent Zika virus scares and the 75 relatively unknown mosquito-borne diseases lurking in Australia. Finally, we hear how this unassuming professor once sang with rock band Queen on one of their lesser-known singles in the 1980s (although it did appear in an album which sold 6 million copies worldwide we've been told) and he even appeared in the music video clip.

This week we chat with CQUni's Forensic Psychology lecturer Associate Professor Stephen Moston. We hear how this British academic cut his teeth in the then new field of forensic psychology with the metropolitan police in England and academia before pulling up roots and heading to Australia to further explore his career. Despite once considering being an astronaut (but he didn't like the pre-employment tests he jokes), Stephen has built an extraordinary reputation in helping the way children are interviewed by police. His research into questioning suspects and eyewitnesses have since moved into the field of sport psychology, looking at ways to question suspected cheats involved in doping. We also hear about his love of teaching and how he loves to 'corrupt' his students into continuing on in forensic psychology. Finally, we hear how dogs could play a role in interviewing eyewitnesses and suspects.

This week we chat with CQUni's Nursing lecturer from Cairns Dr Lydia Mainey. We hear how she studied her undergraduate nursing degree through CQUni and later worked in emergency nursing in Australia and abroad. We learn that after some great 'working holiday' experiences in the UK and Northern Ireland, she signed up with the British Military and naively shot off into Iraq to work in a military hospital (but not before a Robbie Williams concert) - Ha! Not ready to come home, we hear how she took off to Canada - 600km from the Arctic Circle - to work at a first nation's health clinic, igniting her love of public health nursing and learning a lot about what you can and cannot do in minus 50-degree temperatures. Finally, we learn about her passion to see women returning to the workplace, re-registering as nurses, thanks to a revamped nursing course at CQUni.

This week we chat with CQUni's Metal Fabrication teacher Gary Balderson. We hear that before he was a tradie, Gary dreamed of being a policeman or fireman - he even lit up the backyard as 'work experience'. We learn that later he was fascinated by a neighbour with a welder who could join two pieces of steel together, which led him into the field of metal fabrication. We hear about some interesting tales on the job, including watching the roof of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre being lifted by massive cranes and placed into position, and we are inspired by his passion for teaching the next generation of tradies.  Finally, we learn about his obsession for hot rods and about his own Heins-variety beast made over a seven-year period and financed by some deep pockets. And we're assured it was all approved by the 'board of control' - otherwise known as Gary's wife. LOL!