Rita Seethaler has 20 years experience in transport planning, having worked in government in Switzerland for the Federal Statistics Office and the Bureau of Transport Studies. Rita has extensive experience with travel behaviour databases, and with the evaluation of transport externalities. Before coming to Australia, she took a lead role in a trilateral project between France, Austria and Switzerland on the health effects of air pollution from road traffic.

Since coming to Australia, she has continued her investigations into the valuation of the external effects of transport, and is currently undertaking PhD research into the application of the Principles of Persuasion to encourage sustainable transport behaviour.

She has served on the Board of Green Cross Switzerland and was involved in the implementation of the Earth Charter as a practical means of improving environmental sustainability. She is also a Director of TreeSmart Australia Pty Ltd, a company established for the sequestration of greenhouse gas emissions in harvested eucalypt plantations.