Vote now: The Advertiser/Sunday Mail Woman of the Year 2025 finalists named
They inspire and make our world a better place to live. Meet the South Australian Women of the Year finalists. See the list and vote now.
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From educators to industry leaders, and those who go above and beyond to help others, 41 inspirational South Australian women have been selected as finalists in The Advertiser/Sunday Mail SkyCity Woman of the Year awards.
These women who work, volunteer and live in regions right across South Australia from Adelaide to the APY Lands, were selected from hundreds of nominees by a panel of judges for going above and beyond to make our community a better place.
Finalists have been selected across eight categories: Leader of the Year (Jobs Statewide), Inspiration of the Year, Rising Star, Top Business Leader, Top Innovator (Solar Power Direct), Community Champion, Hospitality Hero (SkyCity), Creative Arts Trailblazer (Chihuly in the Botanic Garden) and Women in Sport.
The judges will also announce the top honour of ‘Woman of the Year’ (The Advertiser, Sunday Mail SkyCity WOTY) from our category winners.
All finalists in each category also go into our ‘People’s Choice’ award – voted by advertiser.com.au readers.
In the People’s Choice category the community holds the power to determine this winner through their votes, making this a truly empowering opportunity for all to recognise and celebrate the exceptional individuals who are making a difference.
Voting is open now and closes at 11.59pm on Friday, February 21.
An awards ceremony to reveal the winners will be held at SkyCity Casino on Thursday, March 6.
ominations are also now open for our Advertiser Foundation Young Achiever Scholarship - you can nominate an incredible woman under the age of 25 to be in the running to win $10k to spend on making their dream come true here.
Read about the finalists and cast your vote below:
Leader of the Year (Jobs Statewide)
Maggie Beer
Food Icon
Maggie Beer turned 80 in January but continues to campaign for better diet for the nation’s elderly. The nationally loved television personality produced the hit ABC show Maggie’s Big Mission last year. The series followed Ms Beer as she and a team of experts transformed the meals and dining experience for residents in an aged care home in Western Australia.
The self-confessed “workaholic” overcame adversity last year after suffering from injuries incurred from a fall in August that left her in the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s ICU unit for 15 days. While Ms Beer is enjoying a slower pace of life, the Australian icon and her family still own and run Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop, The Farm Eatery and Cooking School and nearby accommodation venue Orchard House.
Natasha Stott Despoja
Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Domestic Violence
Natasha Stott Despoja AO has been appointed as the Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
In July 2013, she was named the founding Chair of Our Watch, the national foundation to prevent violence against women and children. She was appointed life patron of Our Watch in August 2022. Ms Stott Despoja served as national Ambassador for Women and Girls from 2013 to 2016. She was a member of the World Bank’s Gender Advisory Council from 2015 to 2017. She is currently a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and served on the United Nations High Level Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents.
A former Leader of the Australian Democrats and Senator for South Australia, Ms Stott Despoja is also the author of the book ‘On Violence’.
Professor Tanya Monro
Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist
As Chief Defence Scientist, Tanya Monro is head of Defence Science and Technology Group and Capability Manager for Innovation, Science and Technology within the Australian Department of Defence.
In June 2022, Professor Monro was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to scientific and technological development, to research and innovation, to tertiary education, particularly in the field of photonics, and to professional organisations.
Professor Monro has also served as the Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Optical Society of America, the Australian Institute of Physics, and an International Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.
Penny Tranter
Seaview High School principal
Under Penny Tranter’s leadership at Seaview High School, attendance went up, behavioural issues down and staff retention improved. Ms Tranter, as principal of the school, implemented a holistic wellbeing program which resulted in a 20 per cent improvement in student attendance and a reduction in behavioural incidents. Staff retention also increased by 15 per cent over three years. She was among educators honoured at the 2024 Public Education Awards.
Sara Porzio
Fregon Anangu School principal
Born and raised in the south of France, Sara, 38, has been teaching in the remote APY Lands town of Fregon for the past six years, where she is now principal. She is also raising her young family, daughter aged 12 and son aged 3, in the town. Her kids attend the school and the family have been embraced by the community.
While the APY Lands is vastly different from her hometown in France, Ms Porzio has fallen in love with “Australia, its people, their connection with nature, the landscape, and even the magnificent clear skies”.
“I love visiting my home country (France). It’s great … I have family there, but I’m very happy with the life that we’ve built here, with my family and with the Anangu families that I’m very connected to,” Mrs Porzio told The Advertiser.
Van Tang
Executive Director GHD
Van Tang is a diminutive figure with plenty of personality in a male-dominated industry. She was recently named the new chief executive officer for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region for one of the nation’s largest privately owned engineering firms, GHD. She will lead the company’s operations in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, overseeing more than 5600 people. The mother of two, who has battled breast cancer, is a former Vietnamese refugee who travelled in a boat to Australia when she was three years old. She is a civil engineer with extensive experience in infrastructure, aviation and defence, and a recipient of the 2014 Telstra Businesswomen’s Awards of SA. Ms Tang’s career simply shifts from strength to strength.
Inspiration of the Year
Ali Clarke
Mix 102.3 radio star
The Mix 102.3 radio star, mum and avid AFLW fan bravely shared her cancer diagnosis on live breakfast radio in September 2024. Ms Clarke, through tears, spoke of no family history, no lumps nor bumps and being the “right” side of 50, and how a conversation about perimenopause with her GP got her a mammogram. The results revealed it was breast cancer and she would need a mastectomy.
The “Ali effect” took hold immediately after her announcement with an noticeable increase in the number of women booking mammograms with BreastScreen SA.
Bookings more than doubled with BreastScreen SA receiving 779 bookings for mammograms compared to the usual average of 350.
Anna McKie
Egg donor and surrogate
High schoolteacher, Anna McKie, works tirelessly with Surrogacy Australia’s Support Service in South Australia, helping couples struggling with conception issues find women who are prepared to carry a baby for them. The organisation picked up the award for surrogacy and donation business of the year at the inaugural Australian Surrogacy and Donor Awards in Sydney. She’s also been an egg donor three times and acted as surrogate twice – once for a single mum and for first-time dads in 2020.
Emma Stevens
Organ donation advocate
Mum of Charlie Stevens, tragically killed during the 2023 Schoolies event, and wife of SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, Emma Stevens is a fierce advocate in her own right for organ donation. Mrs Stevens has repeatedly put her own grief at the loss of her beloved son aside to front the public and urge families to talk about organ donation. She is a true inspiration – not shying away from sharing her raw grief, putting her personal heartache to the side in a bid to help others and find a way for Charlie’s death at 18 not to be a waste.
Steph Schmidt
Farmer and mental health advocate
She is a woman who wears many hats: clinical psychologist, farmer, wife, mum and fierce mental health advocate with a focus on the wellbeing of farmers and rural Australians. Mrs Schmidt grew up in inner-suburban Prospect but now runs a livestock and mixed grains property at Worlds End, near Burra, in the Mid North with husband Simon and their three young sons. The ACT for Ag founder recently launched a “Farm Life Psych” podcast aimed to play a part in “changing the picture of farmer mental health”. Mrs Schmidt was a panellist on the Bush Summit – and has spoken openly about her own battles with mental health, motherhood and living life on the land.
Trish Evelyn
Founder and CEO of The Big Al Foundation
On April 15 2021, Trish Evelyn received the call no parent ever wants to receive – her 21-year-old son, actor and poet Alex Cusack had ended his life. Alex had struggled to find his place in the world and process his emotions and since his death, Trish was inspired to begin The Big AL Foundation in honour of her son. The Big AL Foundation was established in October and runs emotional fitness programs for the next generation of young boys and men, teaching them that it is normal to feel their emotions, through regulating their breath.
Kelly-Ann Tansley
CEO of Zahra Foundation Australia and Embolden Alliance board member
Kelly-Ann was at the forefront of the push for a Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence in South Australia following a spate of deaths in late 2023. Over the past few years she has taken the Zahra Foundation from a small organisation to one that now operates in multiple states, has undergone a rebrand and launched an awareness campaign about the red flags of financial abuse. The Foundation helped 600 people in the past year, compared to 1000 in its first seven years.
Rising Star
Amber Brock-Fabel
Founder of South Australian Youth Forum
In a world where young people often have laws made for and about them, Amber Brock-Fabel is ensuring youth voices are heard. Miss Brock-Fabel founded the South Australian Youth Forum in 2021 at just 17 years old. It empowers those aged 14 to 18 to discuss critical issues such as climate change, period poverty, gender equality and youth loneliness with findings presented to lawmakers and relevant organisations. Under her leadership, the Forum has secured partnerships and collaborations with various organisations, gaining both national and international recognition, and was recently represented at the United Nations Summit of the Future, the National Inquiry into Civics Education and the Australian Conference on Youth Health. The youth-led initiative won the Connecting Communities Award at the Young Achiever of the Year Gala in 2024, while Miss Brock-Fabel received the Governor of South Australia’s Commendation for Excellence.
Amelia Griffin
My Mind Matters Founder/Speech Therapist
Amelia Griffin is a young woman who started her career as a speech therapist with Headstart. Last year Ms Griffin launched an app called My Mind Matters which helps those with special needs and autism as well as elderly people communicate. The idea for her app was born while she was volunteering at Eldercare, helping those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s. On one occasion, one of the elderly women said “you shouldn’t bother with me, my mind doesn’t matter” which deeply touched her and inspired the name of her app. What started as an app is now a whole company with multiple speech therapists, OTs and psychologists.
Andriana Petrakis
International tennis champion, coach and autism advocate
Andriana Petrakis, who has autism, is a tennis player sharing her experience, skills and knowledge with other young people with intellectual disabilities.
When Ms Petrakis was nine, her parents – unable to afford occupational therapy – saw tennis as an alternative to build her movement skills, hand eye co-ordination and social skills. Just over a decade later, Ms Petrakis represented Australia at the 2023 Virtus Global Games, the world’s largest elite sports event for athletes with an intellectual disability. She is ranked number five internationally and number two in Australia in the women’s singles People with an Intellectual Impairment category and was awarded Tennis SA’s Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability in 2023. Now an assistant coach with Tennis SA’s Pathway Program, Ms Petrakis hopes to inspire other young people with a disability.
Carlie Smith
Just Shear founder
Carlie Smith “never, ever imagined” herself in this industry but now she’s selling clothing to farmers, shearers and tradies across the world. Originally trained as a sign-writer, Ms Smith overcame challenges as a then-19-year-old looking to break into a tough industry. The Maitland woman has had to figure out the logistics of running a business from a rural location and built close relationships with freight providers. She says her biggest inspirations are her parents who own and run a sheep station in western New South Wales.
Jess Tresidder
Entrepreneur
This young South Australian has a life perspective and swag of academic, business and community accolades that belie her age. At just 20, Jess Tressider is an established entrepreneur, having already set up and sold a successful business, and is a proud recipient of the Governor of South Australia’s Commendation Award. She is both a research assistant at the Ehrenberg Bass Institute as well as an intern at Kicker Communications and is studying a double degree in business marketing and neuropsychology. The poised former student spent her formative teenage years in various foster care arrangements and said that without the support and stability she was provided as a teenager by her carers, she wouldn’t have flourished as she has.
Rose Cocchiaro
Founder of all-female law firm, Resolve Divorce
In 2023, the founder of an all-female law firm launched a new networking and learning initiative in Adelaide aimed to bring together “kick-arse, hardworking and career-driven women”. Rose Cocchiaro – who established award-winning Resolve Divorce a decade ago to offer an alternative to “conservative heavyweights practising traditional family law” – said she was inspired by her own experience.
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Top Business Leader
Anna Wiley
Mining Executive
Earlier this year global mining giant BHP handed Anna Wiley the task of running its copper business in Australia, including assets acquired in last year’s $9.6 billion takeover of OZ Minerals. This new role as BHP asset president for copper in South Australia is huge, it could soon see her take the lead in turning the undeveloped Oak Dam prospect into a mine to add to production from Olympic Dam and the Carrapateena and Prominent Hill mines formerly owned by OZ Minerals in SA. She is a key leader in “The Big Australian”, one of the world’s largest mining companies that spent about $2.7 billion dollars with suppliers here last year and has a broader workforce in South Australia of more than 7000 people.
Annabel West
Corporate Lawyer
Annabel West is a corporate lawyer and partner at Adelaide-based top ten law firm, Thomson Geer. She specialises in mergers and acquisitions and has a strong international client base. Ms West also has extensive experience with clients from various industries including transport, health, agriculture, tourism and the food and beverage sectors. She was named Lawyer of the Year by the Best Lawyers Peer Review in 2023 in the South Australia, Corporate Law category. The Doyle’s Guide for 2022-24 also dubbed her a “recommended lawyer” in the South Australian corporate law scene. Outside of work she is a mother of four and wife to Premier Peter Malinauskas. Working 4.5 days a week while juggling her family and political commitments, it is hard to imagine how she does it all.
Charlotte Chambers, Kristina Scutella, Belinda Humphris and Miriam Weir
Mummamoo Founders
This Adelaide-based female-run baby formula company is taking on a $70 billion industry after a group of mums noticed a gap in the market. The four SA women each realised during their feeding journeys that the formulas they were using were internationally made and owned.
The founders carried out two years of research and development, working with leading pediatric dietitians and scientists to formulate an infant formula that met Australian standards – made in Australia. Since then, the brand has successfully scaled and is now stocked in nearly 1000 stores nationwide. Mumamoo recently scooped up two awards at the 2023 South Australian Premier’s Business and Export Awards, winning both the Small Business of the Year Award and prestigious major Business of the Year Award.
Nabula Brdar
Founder of Supermarket Swap
Supermarket Swap was founded in 2020 by Adelaide mum of two, Nabula ‘Nabs’ Brdar, initially as an Instagram page showcasing simple swaps that can be made at the supermarket allowing shoppers to make cleaner, healthier choices. It has since grown in status and influence, with over 284k followers on Instagram, and influencing over $3m of grocery sales each week by her popular app. This little ‘hobby’ has now turned into a multimillion-dollar business. This year saw massive expansion – the release of a new product range, website, national media exposure and more. In 2025 Ms Brdar will be releasing her much anticipated cookbook.
Wendy-Jayne Williams
RNTT Owner/Director
Trading as Jobs Statewide, Excel Recruitment, Rexco People, Metier Recruitment.
Elite Natural Physique director
The head of a recruitment empire that employs more than 1000 people nationwide, Wendy-Jayne Williams credits her childhood growing up in a Housing Trust home as one of six children of her hardworking single mum with giving her the empathy she needs to connect with her clients. “My life and my upbringing gave me a big understanding of how tough life can be. It gave me a lot of empathy to realise that people just can be unemployed because of circumstances in their life,” says the 60-year-old, who heads up Jobs Statewide, Excel Recruitment and Rexco recruitment. “They could have had great jobs but things happened in life that have set them back. We get to help them turn their lives around.”
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Top Innovator (Solar Power Direct)
Kate Meade
CEO and co-founder, @pavelyapp
Station and Features Reporter at ABC 774 Radio Melbourne, Kate Meade launched her app, Pavely in December 2023 here in SA after falling in love with a South Aussie. The social planning app makes it quick and easy for people with disabilities – and their families and carers – to locate services such as accessible eateries. Pavely also provides locations for every disabled toilet in Australia, with a feature pinpointing disabled parking spaces also in the works. Outside of Pavely, Ms Meade hosts the Women of Influence podcast where she interviews “remarkable Australian women” weekly.
Dr Michelle Perugini
Founder of Life Whisperer and Presagen
A graduate of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, Dr Michelle Perugini has combined a background in health and medical research with the rising power of AI to become a leading tech innovator. She is the woman behind two SA-based start-ups, Life Whisperer, which uses non-invasive AI technology to better select healthy embryos for IVF, and Presagen, which has an AI platform for automating human behaviour.
Dr Perugini is also the Deputy Director of the Commercialisation Enterprise Partnerships Unit at the University of South Australia and was the winner of the 2021 Women in AI (WAI) Healthcare and Telstra Brilliant Women in Digital Health Awards.
Flavia Tata Nardini
Head of Fleet Space Technologies
Flavia Tata Nardini is a mum of three and heads one of Australia’s most acclaimed space companies, Fleet Space Technologies. In 2022, her company launched seven satellites that have been used in the search for critical minerals, such as nickel, lithium and copper. Originally from Rome, love brought her to Adelaide where she has continued to pursue her passions. Born with “the space bug”, she says her motivation is to create a better future for her children and herself. Now, she dreams of one day travelling into outer space.
Professor Shudong Wang
Cancer researcher
World renowned cancer researcher Professor Shudong Wang has developed drugs that are now in trials for diseases including acute myeloid leukaemia, breast cancer, prostate cancer and brain cancer. As Chair of Medicinal Chemistry at UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, she has a portfolio of more than 85 patent applications, and has achieved extensive success in commercialisation from her research. Her research profile has led to collaborations with teams in China, Germany, Hong Kong, Netherlands, UK, and USA. She has also been an adviser for several biotech and pharma drug discovery programs
Community Champion
Khadija Gbla
Human Rights Activist
Khadija Gbla is an Australian feminist and human rights activist. Ms Gbla, who identifies as non-binary She/her/they/them, works as a cultural consultant, a keynote speaker and an anti- female genital mutilation campaigner. She founded the advocacy organisation No FGM Australia, which works to stamp out the practice. Ms Gbla is also an advocate for autism awareness, having been diagnosed as an adult following her son’s diagnosis.
Linda Fisk
Co-founder of Seeds of Affinity support group
The daughter of an alcoholic father and an abused mother, Linda Fisk developed a drug addiction at the age of twelve and was jailed when she was 16. She says being in prison gave her a sense of safety and belonging that was lacking in her childhood. After serving time in SA prisons and giving birth to two sons while incarcerated, she teamed up with her parole officer, Anna Kemp, in 2006, to form Seeds of Affinity, a support group for women who have been released from jail. The group meets twice a week at its new home in Kilburn, where ex-inmates get together, enjoy a meal, access support services and learn new skills.
Lisa O’Malley
Foster carer and co-founder, The Carer Project
Over two decades, Lisa O’Malley has been a foster carer to over 200 placements for children ranging in age from three weeks old to 17. Ms O’Malley is a fierce advocate for children and for improving all aspects of the child protection sector, and through her experience in this area recognised the need for greater support for carers. She co-founded The Carer Project, an entirely volunteer-run organisation providing essential support, education and advocacy to all kinds of carers statewide, including foster, kinship and informal carers. Ms O’Malley has worked tirelessly engaging with policy and change makers in all areas of child protection, contributing to Royal Commissions, inquiries, reviews and reform work. In 2023, Ms O’Malley was selected for the Women’s Honour Roll and won Foster Carer of the Year in South Australia.
Melanie Tate
CEO Puddle Jumpers
Melanie Tate is a passionate advocate for South Australia’s most vulnerable through her work at Puddle Jumpers. The non-for-profit, non-government organisation has a specific focus on helping children and young people. Ms Tate’s tireless efforts include a current campaign to raise $10,000 to keep a mobile shower truck operational in South Australia.
Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Smith
ICU Nurse
Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Smith is an ICU nurse who made a deep impact on the family of former Advertiser deputy editor Ben Hyde after he was a victim of a catastrophic car crash. For Rocky it was another day on the job, but her warmth and generosity were so important to Ben’s family that three years later they still remember and speak about her actions. Ms Smith has a job most people would agree is tremendously hard and traumatic, but she applies the same compassion and empathy to all her patients.
Hospitality Hero (SkyCity)
Lauren Hansen
Penley Estate senior winemaker
Bloomfield Wines owner and winemaker
Emerging winemaker, Lauren Hansen, was just awarded Dux of the prestigious Len Evans Tutorial, where the brightest young stars of the Australian wine industry are invited and tested to their limits on sensory and knowledge of wines from all over the world. It’s a major honour and a great recognition for the Coonawarra region. While she currently works at Penley Estate, Ms Hansen also launched her own “weekend side hustle” called Bloomfield Wines in October.
Mandy Hall
MasterChef alumna and The Great Unwaste campaigner
Once a contestant on MasterChef Australia, Mandy Hall is now leading a groundbreaking nationwide campaign – ‘The Great Unwaste’ – with End Food Waste Australia (EFWA) to unite the nation in a pivotal effort to reduce food waste in our homes.
The campaign seeks to inspire households across the country to implement simple-yet-effective changes that can significantly reduce food waste, ultimately saving money and promoting a sustainable future. She’s a major advocate for using fermentation as a tool to reduce food waste and aid food production, using her platform as a MasterChef alumna to establish herself as a leader in the field.
Olivia Moore
LOC Bottle Wine Bar owner
Starting her career in fashion and eCommerce in London, Olivia Moore moved to South Australia in 2017 to work at d’arenberg as a marketing manager, before launching her online bottle shop for organic and natural wines at the start of the pandemic. By the next year, she turned that website into a bricks and mortar store/bar located in Hindmarsh Square. LOC Bottle Wine Bar now offers an ever changing menu of both food and wine. A board member of Renew Adelaide for the past three years, she’s recently launched an acclaimed new venue in the Hills, Thelma Piccadilly, with Noma’s James Spreadbury and former Summertown Aristologist chef Tom Campbell.
Sue Bell
Winemaker
Sue Bell is a deep thinking winemaker from Bellwether in Coonawarra. Her wines are specifically selected climate appropriate varietal matches. While she loves the classics, Ms Bell also dabbles with emerging Mediterranean varieties. She’s won a number of medals and trophies, and was named Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology Winemaker of the year in 2014 and nominated for Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the year in 2021. Since establishing her small winery and cellar door in 2008, Ms Bell has encouraged other Australian winegrowers to see the parallels between their love of the country they work with and Indigenous culture.
Creative Arts Trailblazer (Chihuly Botanic Gardens)
Elena Kirschbaum
Co-director of Gluttony and creative producer
Elena Kirschbaum is co-director of Gluttony, an events company based in Adelaide. Gluttony runs one of the major hubs at the Adelaide Fringe and is also responsible for the Lucky Dumpling Market, Glenelg Winter Arts Festival and the City of Adelaide NYE Fireworks event, and the Downtown Dumpling Market in Melbourne.
Ms Kirschbaum is also a creative producer and director, specialising in circus and multi-art form performing arts shows. She has been creating shows for more than 15 years through her company Highwire Entertainment, including critically acclaimed national and international hits like Rouge, The Defiant, Shake It, Papillon, Rebel and Dinosaur Time Machine.
Ms Kirschbaum was chosen as a member of the Force Forty 2023 by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Nancy Bates
Indigenous musician and advocate
First Nations singer-songwriter Nancy Bates has overcome personal adversity to become an advocate for her people, particularly Indigenous women, and the power of music as an instrument of healing and change. A chance to perform at a NAIDOC ball on the same bill as late Aboriginal music icon Archie Roach led to an invitation to join him on the road for four years. In 2023, Bates was awarded a star on the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Walk of Fame for her performance in Still Talking Bout a Revolution. Ms Bates is now paying those opportunities forward through the establishment of Blak Country as an ongoing Indigenous music showcase, the first of which she curated as part of this year’s Adelaide Guitar Festival. Ms Bates also started a groundbreaking music program at Adelaide Women’s Prison to teach prisoners how to write songs, sing and play the ukulele, which culminated in a concert with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for over 200 inmates and guests, the first of its kind held inside an Australian prison. Having escaped domestic violence herself, she is also a strong advocate for other women in these situations.
Roz Hervey
Local theatre legend
Local theatre legend Roz Hervey, who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in late 2022, explained her decision to use the state’s voluntary assisted dying laws in a heartfelt letter saying the disease had developed quickly over three months, and was impacting her breathing. The SA stage star and mother of Hollywood actor, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, said she wanted to “leave the party while it’s still going”. Ms Hervey served on the Board of Directors for Theatre Republic for 3 years and was the movement choreographer for their inaugural production, LINES by Pamela Carter. Prior to that, she spent more than 30 years as a dancer, choreographer, director and producer.
Sonya Rankine
Lakun Mara founder
Ngarrindjeri, Ngadjuri, Narungga & Wirangu artist Sonya Rankine founded Lakun Mara in 2019. Lakun Mara, meaning ‘Weaving Hand’ in Ngarrindjeri language, is “weaving + culture” and is at the heart of Ms Rankine’s art which is strongly linked to cultural maintenance, survival and revival. The art of Lakun Mara is inspired by the traditional weaving practice of Ngarrindjeri and Ngadjuri First Nations. Ms Rankine shares her skills through local workshops, inviting others to learn how to make their own baskets and mats with natural and coloured raffia.
Women in Sport
Anna Meares
Olympian and Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Team
Anna Meares, a coalminer’s daughter from Blackwater, Queensland, made one of the great comebacks in Australian Olympic history when she won a silver medal in the women’s sprint cycling at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 after breaking her neck in a race crash in Los Angeles only seven months prior. History wasn’t new to her: in Athens four years before, she had become the first Australian female gold medallist in track cycling, winning the 500 metres time trial while also claiming bronze in the women’s sprint. Having already confirmed her position as the best performing Australian woman cyclist ever she went on to win gold at the London 2012 Games in the women’s sprint along with a bronze in the women’s team sprint. Ms Meares was appointed Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, leading the team to their most successful Olympics of all time. In November 2024, it was announced Ms Meares would continue in this role her role for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Ebony Marinoff
Adelaide Crows AFLW player
The Adelaide Crows AFLW star and triple premiership player enjoyed a year for the ages in the 2024 national women’s competition. The 27-year-old became just the second Crow to win the AFLW best and fairest award, which is the league’s highest individual honour. The Crows co-captain also made the All Australian team for the seventh consecutive year and won the AFL Coaches Association AFLW Champion Player of the Year award, along with being named AFLW Players’ MVP and best captain.
Georgie Horjus
Thunderbird MVP and Diamonds player
This Adelaide Thunderbirds young gun was crowned the Super Netball Player of the Year after a stellar season in which she helped the ‘Birds to back-to-back national championships. Georgie Horjus polled votes in every round she played, missing one game through injury. The star attacker finished the season with a super-impressive 230 goal assists, 445 circle feeds, 297 centre pass receives and 93 goals as she moved between wing attack and goal attack. Horjus’s superb campaign included four player of the match awards and five fan-voted MVPs. Ms Horjus also earned her maiden selection in the Super Netball Team of the Year as wing attack and made her Australian international debut.
Jess Stenson
Olympian
Competing in her third Olympic marathon, Jess Stenson finished in 13th place in Paris producing the second fastest time for an Australian in Olympic history and fifth best result.
Back in 2022, she capped off a remarkable return to competition with a brilliant run in the Commonwealth Games, winning the women’s marathon through the streets of Birmingham.
That victory followed her having a child in 2019 and missing the Tokyo Olympics due to a bone stress injury. Ms Stenson gave birth to her second child – just 11 months before competing in Paris, making her run even more remarkable.
Lauren Arnell
Port Adelaide AFLW Coach
In her third year as coach of Port Adelaide’s AFLW side, inaugural Power coach Lauren Arnell led the team to its first finals series in 2024. She coached Port to the greatest last-quarter comeback in AFLW history to stun Hawthorn and earn a preliminary final shot at flag favourite North Melbourne. Ms Arnell had daughter Marlie in January becoming the first AFLW senior coach to give birth while in the role. Prior to Marlie’s safe arrival, Ms Arnell was always determined to get back into her position as senior coach to show other women and her daughter that pregnancy did not have to be a barrier.
Marjorie Jackson-Nelson
Centre for Women’s Sport
Marjorie Jackson-Nelson finished her sporting career with two Olympic and seven Commonwealth Games Gold Medals, six individual world records and every Australian state and national title she contested from 1950 to 1954. Led by Sport SA, The Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Centre for Women’s Sport was established to assist in the underrepresentation of women in sport as athletes, coaches, officials, administrators, volunteers and board members.
The Program is available for women working or volunteering in the South Australian sport industry. Applicants for the Program will require written confirmation from a state sporting organisation, association, or club that they are eligible for the Program.
Nikki Ayers
Paralympian
Nikki Ayers is an accomplished Australian Paralympic rower. Before her rowing career, she was a talented rugby union player, captaining the ACT Women’s Brumbies 7’s team. However, a serious injury in 2016, where a tackle resulted in a dislocated knee and severe nerve damage, led to the loss of feeling in her foot and required 16 operations to save her leg. Her journey into para rowing began in 2017 through a Train4Tokyo session at the Australian Institute of Sport. After completing her midwifery studies in Canberra, she relocated to Adelaide to train with Jed Altschwager in the PR3 Mixed Double. The pair made history by winning the PR3 Mixed Double Sculls event at Vaires-sur-Marne, claiming Australia’s first-ever Paralympic Gold medal in para-rowing.
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