Theresa and Robyn

Theresa works as a consultant for the Coffee Component Productive Partnership Agriculture Project, funded by the World Bank. She is experienced in business management, human resources and procurement and has held leadership roles mentoring and coaching entry-level graduates.

It is her vision for all Papua New Guineans, especially women and girls, to understand the importance of socio-economic change to improve quality of life and living standards. Through her volunteer work, Theresa plans to educate a diverse group of women across the country in issues of health, sanitation and financial literacy. Theresa believes that her leadership skills, acquired through her roles in the church community and as an education board member, will be strengthened by the networking and support opportunities of the Women’s Leadership Initiative.

Robyn is an accomplished academic, researcher and educational leader. Originally trained in mathematics, she has held a series of senior leadership roles at the University of Western Australia (UWA) over the past 22 years: as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) from 2009-2019; Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Research Training) from 2004-2009; co-Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) in 2003; and Head of the School of Computer Science & Software Engineering from 1998-2002.

Robyn has extensive experience in all aspects of university leadership, including governance, strategic planning, finance, policy development and government relations. She developed new policies for PhD training at UWA and completely rebuilt the research ethics culture of the university. Robyn has worked with both the State and the Federal Governments to develop science and education policy. She has supervised numerous PhD and Masters research students and has received several awards for her research, both nationally and internationally. She is a graduate of the AICD and the Vincent Fairfax Ethical Leadership program from the University of Melbourne.