The 2021 Women in Defence Awards will (finally!) take place on 01 February following several postponements. The event will be held virtually due to the current public health situation in eastern Australia.
Ahead of the event, we are proud to introduce our readers to the amazing finalists across nine categories. Today we are focusing on the finalists in People and Culture.
Squadron Leader Shamsa Lea and Major Lyndsay Freeman of the ADF
Squadron Leader Shamsa Lea and Major Lyndsay Freeman are Co-Founders of the Propel Her - Defence Women's Leadership Series. Shamsa is currently serving as the Logistics Specialisation Capability Advisor within Air Force Headquarters. Lyndsay is currently serving as the Senior Instructor Gender, Peace and Security at the Peace Operations Training Centre.
Through #PropelHerAUS, Shamsa and Lyndsay have empowered women to shape their careers and enhance their professional development by creating an accessible, inclusive and diverse community for respectful discourse. Their advocacy for Defence women has directly enhanced female participation in military blogging. They provide a reputable, intersectional and supportive platform for ‘Guest Authors’ of all genders, ranks and roles to share their knowledge and insights into career, life and personal development topics for women.
Beck Rayner of Military Wife Life
Beck Rayner is the Founder of Military Wife Life and a defence spouse. MWL empowers spouses in their journey as spouses by providing community, understanding, connection, support and information focused on their specific needs.
Beck does this through the online community of (5,000) spouses, the Military Wife Life Podcast (with 50,000 downloads) and Lots of Love boxes.
She is passionate about changing the narrative of who spouses are by telling their real and varied stories, supporting them through celebrations and challenges, valuing and highlighting all that spouses contribute, and empowering spouses to access relevant information and services.
Amelia De Angelis of Kinexus
Amelia De Angelis is the Chairperson and co-founder of The Future Through Collaboration (TFTC), and Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Kinexus. Established in 2015, TFTC runs a defence industry collaborative mentoring program for women working in the defence industry. Its purpose is to support the career development of women in engineering, project management, technical, IT or cyber roles, and includes women from government, the ADF and industry. Involved since its inception, Amelia returned from maternity leave early to harness the opportunity and play a pivotal role in turning an idea into reality. Delivering a traditionally face to face program in 2020 under COVID saw the program go completely virtual.
Corporal Natalie Ekonomopoulos of Royal Australian Air Force
As a member of 462 Squadron, Natalie has a focus on making cyber security accessible for her organisation. Natalie saw the opportunity to raise a forum for women in the Squadron to come together. The idea for the forum germinated during periods of isolation in 2020, as did her continued mentoring and leadership development of the work force that was detached and struggling in the Virtual environment during the COVID pandemic.
In a fashion that displays her solution-oriented thinking and moral courage, Natalie took the proposal straight to the Squadron executives. The 462SQN Women in Cyber Forum was setup and she was given the leading role. Upon running the first forum, Natalie empowered members to define what the forum could be, ensuring it was an inclusive space for all and a safe forum to share ideas, stories and seek advice. Those members who attended could not help but express how genuine Natalie came across in promoting this empowerment.
Dr Rebecca Jackson of Providence Consulting
Bec has established an unequalled professional reputation as a thought leader, mentor, and coach to the past decade of Defence leadership cohorts at the Australian Defence College. Through her authentic leadership style and her professional expertise, Bec has provided an exceptional role model and has had direct input to the professional development of more than 700 senior defence leaders in the past 5 years. Working with numerous not for profit and veteran groups, Bec has built a solid practice of informed and continuous leadership development programs.
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