Kersti was born in Melbourne to Estonian parents who fled from the Soviet occupation of Estonia during World War II.

Kersti was particularly active in the Melbourne Estonian community as a teenager and into her 20s; as a member of the folk dancing group, Secretary of Elagu! (the bilingual Estonian/English newspaper) and as a committee member for Eesti Noortepäevad (Estonian Youth Festival) and ESTO ’88 (The 5th Estonian World Festival).

During the 1990s when living in the USA, Kersti and her husband socialised within the Estonian community in Chicago and attended events at Chicago Eesti Maja (Estonian House) on numerous occasions. More recently, Kersti was the Secretary of the 2014 Eesti Päevad Art Exhibition in Melbourne.

Kersti’s educational qualifications include Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral level degrees. Now retired, Kersti spent the latter decades of her career managing IT programs of work in the public and private sectors and as an Adjunct Professor of RMIT University.

As a member of the Working Group, Kersti is keen to ensure that a transparent and consultative step wise approach is used to draft the Group’s recommendations.

Kersti has a basic proficiency in the Estonian language.