A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.
So let's all choose to challenge.

How will you help forge a gender equal world?
Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.

This year, to celebrate International Women’s Day, Astrolabe Group is hosting a Lunch & Learn. Bring your own lunch and join us online for an invigorating discussion.

Opening with a welcome from Aboriginal woman, Lauren Drayton, the session will be a facilitated discussion led by Astrolabe's emerging leader, Belinda Jackson.

We're excited to explore this year’s theme for International Women's Day #ChoosetoChallenge. Our speakers will explore how they break the stereotype or challenge their non-traditional roles and respond to questions from the audience.

How will you #choosetochallenge yourself this year? We are also encouraging people to head to our online pledge board and commit to yourself for 2021

Our panel speakers:

Somali Cerise

Program Director STEM, Champions of Change

Somali Cerise is a human rights and gender equality expert with a global profile. She believes the challenges presented by COVID make the pursuit of gender equality an urgent priority: “Major policy decisions being made with the gender impacts too often neglected. COVID has also brought the issue of care to the fore, as women’s unpaid care work burdens have intensified across the globe.”

Natasha Luschwitz

Executive Director, Strategic Coordination Branch, Department of Premier & Cabinet

2020 was a year of significant challenges for all, beginning with the bushfire crisis in NSW and closely followed by COVID-19. Natasha has brought together senior leaders from across government agencies to support the establishment of the Disaster Recovery Office in January 2020.

Claire Beattie

Executive Director, Partnerships , School Infrastructure NSW

Claire is a proud Aboriginal woman and an experienced leader who loves the challenge of delivering complex projects. She is always focused on making a difference.

Claire was a Finalist in the Premier’s Awards for Driving Public Sector Diversity, and a Finalist in both the Australian of the Year Award and Young Australian of the Year Award. She’s also won 24 boxing championships.

Cathy Hayes

Head of Client and Strategy Building NSW & ACT, CPB Contractors

With a combination of an MBA (Exec) with a long architectural career and more than 25 years’ experience in the design and construction industry, Cathy is a customer experience focused strategist that enjoys solving complex problems.

Cathy’s portfolio includes the design of Grocon’s flagship Sydney development, the Ribbon and the design and delivery of several multi billion dollar projects.

Belinda Jackson

Senior Consultant, Astrolabe Group

Belinda has worked in a diverse array of fields as a project and policy professional, ranging from spatial information management policy and strategy with NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation, to tackling youth homelessness in Canada as a project coordinator for A Way Home Kelowna.

Belinda is a recreational running coach in her spare time, helping women discover the transformative power of running.