Getting a job a hard slog after break
The difficulties of returning to work after being a stay-at-home parent Getting back into the workforce after taking time out to have children was the biggest hurdle Robyn Petch has faced in her career. But perseverance and chutzpah paid off, and after stints in retail and more than ten years in…
Design and discovery
A cutting edge immunologist with a passion for the creativity of medical research Medical research is always portrayed to the public in terms of diseases and the search for cures and exciting new therapies. However, Professor Helen O’Neill admits that the process of research is tough and much…
Law don wants students to change the world
A trail-blazing academic urges her students to get active in law reform As a young lawyer, Molly O’Brien did battle with the best in American courts where she defended clients including a man accused of murdering his baby and another up on rape charges. Now an associate professor in the ANU…
A happenstance of opportunities
A passionate teacher believes in the continuing relevance of the Classics Professor Elizabeth Minchin is one of only a handful of Classics professors in Australia and, with chairs at the University of Queensland and at Macquarie currently being filled, she is presently the only woman holding a…
Marketing manager on a mission
A life and work motivated by issues of equity Heather McEwen’s first experience of inequity and the possibilities of change was in the potato fields of Norfolk, England, when she challenged a farmer’s pay scales. Heather was just a teenager on a school holiday job following the tractors to…
An overflowing cup of optimism
A popular café proprietor inspires the university community with her courage When Judy Hodgins’ son went missing in Mexico, she went through the worst period of her life. “We went into the police station to report him missing to Interpol because we hadn’t heard from him,” says Judy, recounting…
The importance of quality early education
Nurturing confident children and easing working parent stress No working parent, and that still means more women than men, can be inspiring in their career without access to the essential support of quality care for their pre-school children. The Acton Early Childhood Centre (AECC) and its…