Lisa Palmer

This book examines the dynamics of a 'return to custom' in post-independence Timor-Leste; a set of practices connecting ancestral house communities with the complex spirit ecologies upon which people's livelihoods and well-being depend. Drawing on detailed comparative studies, it considers the contribution of custom and its inter-generational legacies to the development of sustainable social and environmental policies of governance in Southeast Asia's newest nation-state. The book is both a timely study of social renewal in post-conflict societies, and a creative contribution to the possibilities of sustainable environmental and cultural resource management in Timor-Leste and the wider region.

The secret to AI adoption? Stop explaining the tech—help your organization visualize business success. Stakeholders don't invest in AI because they understand the tech—they invest when its business impact is clear and undeniable. In Show AI—Don't Tell It, AI executive and business strategist Dr. Lisa Palmer reveals how to use visual storytelling to make AI's value tangible, turning complex ideas into clear business outcomes that drive buy-in, adoption, and scale. Instead of vague theories and hype, this book provides clear frameworks, practical tools, and proven visualization techniques to help leaders secure funding, accelerate implementation, and maximize AI's impact. Applying her Bold AI Leadership Model, Dr. Palmer lays out a structured approach to AI success: Mindset: The four Applied AI Guiding Principles—Business Value, Speed with Rigor, Simplicity, and Human-Centricity—keep AI initiatives focused, efficient, and impactful. Strategic Priorities: The five AI Success Pillars—Value Creation, Customer-Centricity, Collaborative Teams, Cultural Shifts, and Data as a Strategic Asset—ensure AI drives measurable business results. Practical Tools: The Visualization Tool Decision Framework, featuring over 20 strategic visualization tools, helps leaders simplify complexity, overcome resistance, and communicate AI's impact with clarity and confidence. A must-read for executives, business leaders, and AI practitioners, Show AI—Don't Tell It provides the mindset, strategy, and tools needed to translate AI's potential into tangible value. Whether you're seeking stakeholder buy-in, funding approval, or faster adoption, this book shows you exactly how to use visual storytelling to accelerate business success with AI.

This book is one women's personal testimony of God's redeeming grace and love. He took something that was trampled and broken; and turned it into something beautiful. May everyone who reads this book not only be blessed but be inspired to claim His promise to bring beauty from ashes. Because I am a Queen is a story of deliverance, which brought one woman into her destiny.

As water resources diminish with increasing population and economic pressures as well as global climate change, this book addresses a subject of ever increasing local and global importance. In many areas water is not only a vital resource but is also endowed with an agency and power that connects people, spirit beings, place and space. The culmination of a decade of ethnographic research in Timor Leste, this book gives a critical account of the complex social and ecological specificities of a water-focused society in one of the world’s newest nations. Comparatively framed by international examples from Asia, South America and Africa that reveal the need to incorporate and foreground cultural diversity in water governance, it provides deep insight into the global challenge of combining customary and modern water governance regimes. In doing so it addresses a need for sustained critical ecological inquiry into the social issues of water governance. Focusing on the eastern region of Timor Leste, the book explores local uses, beliefs and rituals associated with water. It identifies the ritual ecological practices, contexts and scales through which the use, negotiation over and sharing of water occurs and its influence on the entire sociocultural system. Building on these findings, the book proposes effective conceptual and methodological tools for advancing community engagement and draws out lessons for more integrated and sustainable water governance approaches that can be applied elsewhere. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in environmental studies, environmental policy and governance.

As water resources diminish with increasing population and economic pressures as well as global climate change, this book addresses a subject of ever increasing local and global importance. In many areas water is not only a vital resource but is also endowed with an agency and power that connects people, spirit beings, place and space. The culmination of a decade of ethnographic research in Timor Leste, this book gives a critical account of the complex social and ecological specificities of a water-focused society in one of the world’s newest nations. Comparatively framed by international examples from Asia, South America and Africa that reveal the need to incorporate and foreground cultural diversity in water governance, it provides deep insight into the global challenge of combining customary and modern water governance regimes. In doing so it addresses a need for sustained critical ecological inquiry into the social issues of water governance. Focusing on the eastern region of Timor Leste, the book explores local uses, beliefs and rituals associated with water. It identifies the ritual ecological practices, contexts and scales through which the use, negotiation over and sharing of water occurs and its influence on the entire sociocultural system. Building on these findings, the book proposes effective conceptual and methodological tools for advancing community engagement and draws out lessons for more integrated and sustainable water governance approaches that can be applied elsewhere. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in environmental studies, environmental policy and governance.