Alison is a Speech Pathologist who has worked mostly with people with disabilities and in schools, both in Australia and the UK. She has also worked as an ESL teacher, both here and in Mexico, and holds a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics.

Alison has a long history of community activism. As President of the Lincoln Institute Student Union in the 1980s, Alison opposed building a car park for students on part of the Collingwood Children's farm's land. She joined the Fitzroy High School occupation team, sleeping overnight at the school for much of 1993 to ensure it wasn't sold off.

On the Philippines Resource Centre board in the 1990s, she helped raise awareness of environmental and social injustice in the Philippines. She has also been active in anti-nuclear, development aid, refugee rights and sustainable transport campaigns, and a member of her trade union's state executive.

Alison joined the Greens in 2001, and has been involved in local and statewide leadership positions. She currently works part-time as the Victorian Party Coordinator of the Greens, and part-time in her own speech pathology practice.

Alison keeps fit by riding her bike. She travelled in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Latin America instead of buying real estate, so she's familiar with many cultures, and with renting and wondering whether she and her partner will ever be able to buy, like nearly 50% of Yarra residents.

Things Alison wants for Yarra include:

• Fantastic public transport, not road tunnels or clearways.
  

• Joined-up bike paths, where people of all ages cycle safely and confidently.
• Car ownership at an all-time low, and car sharing booming.
  
• Solar panels and water tanks everywhere, giving us low utility bills and greenhouse gas emissions, and thriving gardens.
  
• Industrial sites and warehouses being cleaned up and used for energy-efficient, affordable housing.
• Heritage buildings and streetscapes protected and in good nick.
• People with disabilities able to get out and about, day and night.
  
• Trees and plants in all our streets and public open spaces, and mature trees protected on private land.
  
• Platypuses returning to our waterways, and indigenous birds and animals spotted in our parks and street trees.
  

• Students, academics and politicians from round the world studying Yarra as a leading example of a sustainable, socially-connected, prosperous, livable city.