We’ve long known that Flinders is home to inspirational women – and now the rest of the state knows it as well, with five Flinders alumni and a former staff member named as finalists in The Advertiser/Sunday Mail SkyCity Woman of the Year Awards.
From across the state, these seven leaders and game-changers were selected from hundreds of nominees. Check out the Flinders finalists below, or read the full list of finalists here.
Honorary Doctorate recipient and food icon Maggie Beer (DUniversity ’22) and Fregon Anangu School principal Sara Porzio (MTeach(PrimR-7) ’18) are finalists in the Jobs Statewide Leader of the Year category.
Nationally loved television personality Ms Beer is a passionate advocate for improving diets for the nation’s elderly. After overcoming injuries sustained from a fall last year that saw her spend 15 days in the ICU, Ms Beer and her team continue to transform the meals and dining experience of residents in aged care homes.
Born and raised in the south of France, Ms Porzio is a long way from home, teaching in the remote APY Lands town of Fregon. Now Principal, her school teaches Anangu learning techniques of nyawa (look), kuila (listen) and arkala (try to have a go) and has developed a series of ‘I Can’ books to develop wellbeing. It has won recognition for its women’s sexual health education program Kunga Ninti and has started a similar one for boys and men.
Amelia Griffin (BSpPath ’20), founders of My Mind Matters and a qualified speech therapist, is a finalist in the Rising Star category. After starting 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.
Human Rights Activist Khadija Gbla (BIntSt ’14) and ICU nurse Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Smith (BHlthSc ’09, GradCertClinRehab ’11, GradDipNg(CritCare) ’21) are finalists in for the Community Champion award.
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.
Ms 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.
The late Roz Hervey, a former creative arts lecturer at Flinders, is a finalist in the Chihuly in the Botanic Garden Creative Arts Trailblazer category. A local theatre legend, Ms Hervey was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in late 2022. In a heartfelt letter, she explained her decision to use the state’s voluntary assisted dying laws, 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 three 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.