International Women’s Day 2020
As International Women’s Day approaches, we look back at some of the incredible #women whose stories we have been proud to tell. These women are working in fields as diverse as finance, law, public policy, grains and fisheries …. but are all making their mark and a difference in the world.
Kate Wilson, Mallee agronomist and grain grower
Far from being the 'feedlot queen' she first imagined as her agricultural career, agronomist Kate Wilson is at the forefront of efforts to continue cropping and food production in increasingly challenging climatic conditions. Based at Hopetoun in Victoria's Mallee region, she is both a farm adviser and a grain grower.
A measure of her success in driving best practice and adaptability is the continued production of viable crops on the property she farms with husband Grant, despite successive years of drought in the region.
“As an agronomist, I’ve seen a lot of change as the industry has to find ways to stay profitable. That’s why I say the most successful farmers are those who have the ability to change – before they are forced to change.”
Her expertise has also been co-opted as a member of the Grains Research and Development Board’s southern region advisory panel to help identify the research directions and issues that will help Australian growers continue to farm successfully despite ongoing environmental challenges.
Read Kate’s story as featured in the GRDC’s GroundCover™ Magazine here
Or watch her CabChat with Coretext's Brad Collis on YouTube here
Deborah Glass, Victorian Ombudsman
Featured in the latest Monash University alumni magazine Monash Life, Deborah Glass speaks of her lifelong commitment to social justice that has seen her investigate everything from police misconduct over the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in England that killed 96 football fans, to (as ombudsman) mismanagement in aged care, prisoner rehabilitation and errors around issuing fines.
"It all heads in the general direction of ensuring that all Victorians have a voice; that we work to redress that imbalance of power between the individual and the state.”
You can watch Deborah talk about her role and read her story on the Monash website here
Amanda McKenzie, Climate Council CEO
"Save the world from environmental pollution" was a goal Amanda McKenzie set herself as a teenager to achieve by the time she turned 30. While it was an ambition too big for one person, it set her on a path to establishing the Australian Youth Climate Coalition while she was still a university student – an organisation that has represented Australia at the UN and helped build climate and political literacy among new generations. This led to the Climate Council, a leading voice on climate change nationally aiming to ensure the conversation around climate action is evidence-based and working with grassroots organisations to create change. You can read her story on the Monash website here
Gloria Jones, Coorong fisher
When pioneering fisher Gloria Jones first drove down the dirt road to the Coorong on the South Australian coast, to settle as a newlywed in 1962, there was no electricity, no telephone and one of their only neighbours was a “bloke in a cave”.
But by 2011 she had become the first woman inducted into the national Seafood Industry Hall of Fame, recognised for her work not only on protecting the environmental sustainability and credentials of the fishery at the mouth of the Murray River, but also in fighting, with her late husband Henry, for the health of the Murray–Darling system.
"We believed it wasn't right that children who had not experienced this Lake Coorong wonderland were going to accept dying ecosystems as the norm."
You can read Gloria Jones’ story originally published in the FRDC’s FISH Magazine on our website here
Caroline Angoorly, Energy executive
After three decades putting together billion-dollar energy projects across the world, Australian-raised Caroline Angoorly has been helping to ‘green’ New York. As NY Green Bank COO for more than five years, she worked with private capital to encourage investment in clean energy technologies and sustainable infrastructure, such as solar panels and bike-share systems, playing a key role in enabling the city to achieve a 100 per cent renewable electricity grid by 2040. “We’re at a point where there’s a confluence of commerciality and zeitgeist,” she says.
“People are seeing an opportunity to be commercially successful while also doing things we need to happen if we’re going to forestall climate disaster.”
She has recently returned to GreenTao, a project development company she founded, specialising in clean energy and sustainable infrastructure. You can read her story on the Monash website here
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