Geelong Deakin graduate Liesl Freeman wants more mums in leadership roles

A Geelong woman who graduated with a masters degree from Deakin University this week in front of her biggest supporters says “having a family or being female shouldn’t hold you back from having a seat at the table”.

Geelong mum Liesl Freeman’s passion for leadership was cemented with a masters degree this week. Picture: Alison Wynd.

An Irish-born Geelong mum has graduated from her second Deakin University degree while working full-time and juggling school drop-offs.

And she wants other mums to know anything is possible.

Liesl Freeman graduated on Monday with a Master of Leadership in front of her biggest supporters: her husband, Matt, and their two children, aged 11 and nine.

Ms Freeman has worked full-time at Deakin for two decades and in 2014, she completed a Bachelor of Management just one year after having her oldest child.

“I’ve had two children during my time at Deakin, and the flexibility and support I’ve had from colleagues meant I never had to put my career on hold,” she said.

“I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve always had very supportive supervisors, particularly female supervisors who understood the juggle of kids and working.”

She said it meant things like understanding school pick-up might only take 20 minutes, but was necessary.

“We (women) bring a different kind of dynamic to the table,” she said.

“Having a family or being female shouldn’t hold you back from having a seat at the table, you’re just as capable as everyone else in the room.”

Ms Freeman said she began her masters in 2022 to not only be a leader, but to help encourage and grow other leaders.

“I wanted to have a formal qualification to underpin the actual hands-on experience I had,” she said

“The important thing is to keep throwing down the ladder to help those people move up and become leaders themselves, whether they’re in a formal leadership roles or not.

“People are your best asset, and as a leader your job is to empower them.”

Her degree followed her work in the role of operations manager at Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), which launched in early 2020 – just six weeks before Covid lockdowns commenced.

She oversaw technical, communications and administrative teams supporting close to 200 researchers during the pandemic, and more than 150 students across 96 laboratories.

Four years on, she is now associate director of operations at IFM.

She said the masters had been vital to building her career, while also paying tribute to her family.

“There’s no way I could have done this without Matt,” Ms Freeman said.

“He’s an incredible husband and father, and I’m so happy for him and the kids to see the results of all this hard work.”

Originally published as Geelong Deakin graduate Liesl Freeman wants more mums in leadership roles