2014 Award Winners

Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann

Sue Wickenden was a brave woman, persistent and diligent and therefore a true entrepreneur.

Sarah-Jane is an experienced and intelligent Entrepreneur whose leadership and communication skills and history of success, impact and contributions, particularly within the ICT industry are both admirable and inspiring.

Nathalie Bock

Nathalie Bock has just completed her PhD investigating growth factor delivery for bone regeneration.

Nathalie plans to use the prize to fund trips to conferences to further her post-doctoral studies.

She ultimately plans to establish her own Biotech company, ‘Tumour Engineering’ to produce cancer mimicking models which will assist academic and clinical researchers.

Helen Huang

The award judges were extremely impressed with all the nominees. Our 3 finalists for this category were passionate, hard working and make a significant contribution to their particular fields.

Helen was selected for her contribution to the field of information technology research, her commitment to ongoing research and her ability and drive to guide the young minds of the future.

Anne-Marie Birkill

The panel found Anne-Marie to be an outstanding candidate for this award. She is accomplished, considered and confident and she projects a wonderful professional persona. Her considerable impact has been felt in the industries that she has been a part of and the organisations that she has volunteered her time and extensive expertise for.

Her mentoring philosophy is generous and many young people that have crossed Anne-Marie’s path have benefitted from her time and expertise. Overall, Anne-Marie is a wonderful asset to our industry and someone who can inspire and encourage the next generation to follow in her footsteps.

Josephine Forbes

Josephine has a clear and consistent record of academic excellence, as epitomised by the recent commonwealth Health Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Medical Research. She is working at the interface of basic and transitional research.

She also demonstrates leadership in mentorship and at a policy level with her work with the NHRC Transitional academy.

In addition to all this, she still finds the time to communicate to the public she was a genuine WOW!

Irina Vetter

Imagine a future without pain?

Irina has a vision to assist making that a reality through improved pain management and making pain a part of the national health agenda.

Helen Murray

Through her vision, passion and influence Helen has delivered outstanding improvements in the delivery of health service across Queensland based on the innovative use of modern ICT technologies.

As a role model for women in ICT Helen would tell you “not to put yourself in a box” but rather consider the broader opportunities to contribute to the community as she has clearly demonstrated throughout her own career.

Alexandra Spillane

There were a number of excellent applicants with a very tight finish in this category. We are very excited that the WiT Professional Award Winner is Alexandra Spillane.

Alex exemplified what this award is all about. Alex’s enthusiasm and passion for IT is demonstrated through her drive and her desire to create a cohesive environment throughout her own organisation and the wider industry.

Queensland University of Technology

QUT’s implicit understanding of why it is important to develop programs and practices to attract, retain, develop and reward women in their workplace, not only from a gender equity perspective, but for the values women bring to the organisation, clients and the wider community is to be applauded.

This, coupled with the strategies and practices in place to not only support women but also eliminate barriers and bias, have resulted in equal representation of men and women in the positions of Dean, Assistant Dean and Deputy Vice Chancellor, in particular the Deputy VC heading the very large Division of Technology, Information and Learning Support, through programs such as Women in Leadership, Women in Research Grants Scheme and mentoring programs across both academic and professional roles.

QUT has shown itself to be a leader with its constant monitoring, measurement, analysis & celebration of its innovative programs to ensure success of their strategy of making gender equity normalised & habitual at every level.