2021 International Women's Day

#ChooseToChallenge

The theme for IWD 2021 is “Choose to Challenge”. A challenged world is an alert world. And from challenge comes change, so let’s #ChooseToChallenge.

NCWQ & USC are excited to invite you to our luncheon event for the 2021 International Women's Day.

To all our National Council of Women Queensland members, this day is in honour of you!

We are joining with the United Service Club Queensland to celebrate International Women’s Day.

We are delighted to announce the speakers for this event:

Read more about these amazing women below.

To all our career women, wives, mothers, grandmothers, philanthropists and volunteers… we hope to welcome you here on this special day!

LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE SO BOOK EARLY!

Luncheon Details

VENUE:

United Service Club Queensland

183 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, 4000

(Parking available at the rear of the building, entrance via Upper Edward Street)

DATE: Monday, 8th March 2021

TIME: Starts 12 noon

TICKETS: $69 per person, includes a glass of sparkling on arrival and a 2-course lunch with table wines.

RSVP by 1st March

Professional Dress Code

Tickets strictly limited – book now!

Enquiries

For enquiries contact events@ncwq.org.au

About the Speakers

Ms Chiou See Anderson

Born in Singapore, Chiou See arrived in Brisbane in 1988 to complete her Accounting degree at QUT. Over the next 15 years, she had a variety of careers spanning from managing a 2-site Ford dealership, accounting for an Italian coal mining company and marketing for a large Queensland legal firm before starting a business advisory consulting business.

During her business advisory career, Chiou See’s clients included family businesses, the Queensland Government and various construction industry unions. A subsequent business review of the Royal Queensland Aero Club resulted in a full-time appointment. During the 5-year tenure, an international flying school and an aircraft engineering school were added to the portfolio and Chiou See successfully secured the first overseas airline training contract to Brisbane in the early 2000s.

In 2003, whilst completing her MBA, Chiou See’s class modelled the aggregate purchasing power of the world’s ageing population. Later that year, she secured a block of land in the Daisy Hill habitat with a view to starting a retirement village. A development application refusal resulted in a lengthy and costly appeal in the Planning & Environment Court. The preliminary court approval was finally handed down in Jan 2007 with final negotiations concluding in March 2008.

Two weeks before the commencement of the trial in 2006, Chiou See was awarded a doctoral scholarship at Bond University as a member of an Australian Research Council team into housing options for the Australian ageing population. Much of that research and data fed into the re-design and conceptualisation of what Elements is today.

Elements finally opened in September 2010. Today, there are 108 homes, a state-of-the-art Clubhouse, amazing gardens and over 150 residents. Construction of the balance of 15 homes started in October 2017 and were completed in 2018.

Anderson’s unique approach to retirement living is a result of extensive study of the sector across Australia and Japan – learning what works and what doesn’t during her travels. In Anderson’s community, design details keep functionality, social interaction, health and well-being for her residents in mind. Implementing an Australian-first cloud-based communication hub, the tech-savvy owner has allowed the community to stay even more connected and encourage the use of technology among residents.

Creating a space that inspires retirees to live their best lives, Chiou See Anderson’s approach to post-work living looks a little different to her competitors. Her feminine perspective and hands-on approach create a winning formula, with Anderson even moving into her own modern villa at the Springwood property. A testament of her love for the community. From hosting Friday afternoon drinks at her place to international holidays with community members, Anderson has designed the village so residents can get the most out of their retirement.

In 2010, Chiou-See was recognised by the Urban Development Institute of Australia as a Rising Star. In 2013, she won the inaugural Gold Coast Women in Business Innovation Award for her contributions to her industry. Finally in 2017, Elements received a special commendation Award for Innovation in at the Property Council of Australia’s National Retirement Living Awards.

Chiou See is a qualified CPA with an MBA and an abandoned PhD. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Chiou See is the State President of the National Council of Women of Queensland, National President Elect of the National Council of Women of Australia, Chair of Conpago and Treasurer for Regional Development Australia for Logan and Redlands. In her spare time, she works as a glassy for the Brisbane Jazz Club and guest lectures at Bond University.

She is the accidental mother to 3 adult children - Christopher, Jessica and Olivia.

Dr Dimity Dornan AO

As a bride entering the United Service Club with my new husband, Peter Dornan, on 29 March 1967, little did I anticipate my future long and wonderful relationship with the Club. The Club was already known to me as a place of warmth and family, as my father Captain Richard (Dick) Crist (2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion) and my godfather Lieutenant Colonel Richard Cameron DSO ED (same battalion) were long standing members, with the latter being President of the Club (1966-1968). Our wedding reception there was followed by those of my three sisters and, in later years, our only daughter. It was a beautiful family tradition, and one of which my father was justifiably proud. Many family celebrations and the annual El Alamein Dinner followed, as first the sons, sons-in-law and grandsons were welcomed to this remembrance. Later the women of the family were also invited to join the Club. My husband and I became USC civilian members and have really enjoyed the social life of the Club over many years.

I studied speech pathology at the University of Queensland, then specialised in adults with brain injuries for 15 years after which I had a big decision to make. Having altered my focus to work with deaf children and retaining my strong interest in the brain, I could see that changes in deaf education were needed. The Australian-invented bionic ear – the cochlear implant – had only just started to be used in children, with new possibilities for accessing the brains of deaf children with sound. Around 1991 I was trying to decide whether I could start a not-for-profit for parents who wanted their children with hearing loss to learn to listen and speak, an option not available in Queensland at the time. It was a quote from pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart that inspired and encouraged me, “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace”. The new centre, which I called Hear and Say, opened its door in July 1992.

I badly needed that courage many times as I struggled against negative opinion to work with not only the bionic ear technology for children in Queensland, but also to introduce new techniques for training the brains of young children to hear and to speak by educating their parents. Thankfully, with the support of the Queensland Australian Medical Association and many others and an early start to treatment through hard-won newborn hearing screening for every baby born in this state, the children were able to learn to listen and speak. They accomplished this so well that now, 28 years later, they are showing the world! They have succeeded academically and speak publicly about their gifts of not just listening and speaking, but also reading, education, careers and multiple life pathways. Today Hear and Say cares for around 1000 Queensland children at any one time, and many more in 42 countries around the world have benefited from our research and professional training. Best of all, thousands of deaf children are now part of the hearing world.

It has been my honour to have had my work recognised with a number of awards including Member of the Order of Australia AM (1998), Australian of the Year Queensland (2003), Ernst and Young Australian Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2005), Queensland Great (2013), Legend of Brisbane (2015), Queenslander of the Year (2010-2011), University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year (2011), Officer of the Order of Australia AO (2014), QUT Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame (2017) and Senior Australian of the Year for Queensland (2018).

However, the story continues… the bionic ear has been shown to allow children the chance to progress in learning to listen and speak at the same rate and with the same skills as children with typical hearing, becoming the first successfully commercialised neuromodulation device. These outcomes are, I believe, nothing short of legendary. This has now resulted in the development of new bionic devices to treat different types of previously untreatable medical disorders.

Once more I have seen some challenges with the system and summoned my courage to start a new not-for-profit, Bionics Queensland, an alliance aimed at accelerating bionic solutions for people with problems like other sensory disabilities, and also mobility problems, brain disorders, organ damage, and many others. Australia has incredible thought leadership in bionics because of the bionic ear, and I want to retain our valuable innovators and researchers in this country and facilitate new bionic discoveries by creating 10 times more impact on treating these and other medical problems. Already these new bionic devices are showing huge promise for transforming lives, with the opportunity of major economic return for Queensland and for Australia. What’s more, I know that by working together we can turn the impossible into the incredible!

Major Jenny Walker ― MC

MAJ Jenny Walker was our Club’s first female President. She is a management consultant, Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee for Queensland Police Service and Independent Director of War Widows Queensland. She also chairs the Strategic Governance Board of the Veterans Advocacy Training and Development Program. She has been a Member of the Veterans Review Board since 2013.

Jennifer Walker has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing). She also has a Diploma of Marketing Research, and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Jenny enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1981 and was accepted into 18 Course at OCTU, 1st Training Group. She graduated as Second Lieutenant in 1983 into the Australian Intelligence Corps and was posted to 140 Signal Squadron for Regimental Training. She was subsequently promoted to Captain (1988) and Major (1992). Amongst her postings were 1 Intelligence Unit (Field Force); HQ 1st Division and Deployable Joint Force Headquarters (in staff postings on 3 occasions); as Second-in-Command of 1st Division Intelligence Company; and as an Instructor at the School of Military Intelligence. She was the first Reserve Officer to be trained as an Interrogator and deployed in that role to ARA and Ares exercises within Australia. For her sixteen years’ service she was awarded the Reserve Force Medal and the Defence Force Medal.

Major Walker joined the Club in 1995. She was first elected to the Committee in 2008 and served on several sub-committees – including Strategy and Policy; Member and Member Services; Audit and Risk; and Finance Policy and Property. She was Vice-president in 2011-12 and was elected President in 2013-14. There were several notable events during her presidency. The first General Manager without a military background was appointed. The Committee was restructured to reduce its numbers, and the distinction between service and civilian Members was abolished. In common with a number of Presidents over the years, she engaged with members preparatory to the consideration of the further development of the Club premises to ensure long-term viability. Importantly, in 2013 she led Club members on its first World War One Battlefield Study Tour – during which the grave of every Club Member who died on the Western Front was visited; and on return the Club established the memorial rose garden on the terrace.

Before she moved into management consulting, Jenny’s career included roles in marketing, management services and industry development, as well as drafting and mapping functions. For the decade prior to 1996, Jenny filled several senior commercial and marketing roles in the Queensland Government – principally in the Department of Transport. She then established her own consulting practice and worked across a variety of organisations including private companies, government owned corporations, non-government organisations, not for profit organisations, community organisations and government commercialised / contestable business units From 2014 to 2018, Jenny was appointed as Chief Executive Officer, Legacy in Sydney. This role was the first ever national CEO for Legacy, successfully bringing together 50 autonomous Legacy Clubs into one national incorporated association. In 2018 she returned to the consulting industry.

Contact the host of NCWQ & USC International Women's Day