Twilight Speaker Event - International Women's Day Panel

In 2026 we are pleased to announce our brand new event, the International Women's Day Twilight Speaker Panel.

This year, International Women's Day takes place on Sunday, 8 March. To mark the occasion, on Tuesday the 24th of March, we are bringing together three distinguished women from within our alumni community here in Melbourne to have a conversation about education, career, family and female empowerment.

Our three panellists will answer a number of questions from our MC and there will be a Q&A at the end. We are delighted to be returning to the offices of Corrs Chambers Westgarth for this event, with drinks and canapes.

We are pleased to introduce our three panelists:

Erin Hoare

Erin is Associate Professor of Neurodiversity and Mental Health, psychologist, and dual code former professional athlete with a multidisciplinary background in mental health, education, and sport.

She is an Associate Professor at the University of New England where she currently acts as Acting Director, Manna Institute – a mental health research institute of over 200 affiliate researchers. She is Honorary Principle Fellow, University of Melbourne and Honorary Fellow at Deakin University. Erin completed postdoctoral training at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications. She is a 2025 Sir Winston Churchill Fellow, a 2 x Fulbright Scholar, and a former NHMRC Early Career Fellow. Erin also contributes to several boards, advisory groups, and public forums. In clinical practice, Erin is dedicated to neurodiversityaffirming, culturally responsive, and traumainformed approaches.

Outside academia and psychology, she previously played professional Australian rules football in the AFLW for Melbourne and Geelong, and netball for Melbourne Vixens and NSW Swifts. She lives and works of Wadawurrung Country, Victoria.

Annabelle Walker

Annabelle is a lawyer and governance professional whose career spans financial regulation, investment banking and the not-for-profit sector. She is General Counsel at Flagstaff Partners and has over a decade of experience in legal, risk and compliance roles across Australia and Asia-Pacific. She previously worked at Macquarie Capital and Lazard, advising on legal and compliance matters for their corporate advisory businesses. Annabelle began her career at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, where she worked in Financial Market Enforcement including investigations into insider trading, market manipulation and continuous disclosure and on the Corporate Governance Taskforce investigating director oversight of non-financial risk in ASX20 organisations. 

Annabelle holds a Master of Corporate Law from the University of Cambridge (St Edmund’s College), and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Bachelor of Arts in Advanced Mandarin Chinese and Diploma of Languages in Advanced French from La Trobe University, as well as a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from Australian National University. She has served as President of the Cambridge Society of Australia (Victoria) and is Company Secretary of the National Trust of Victoria Foundation.

Annabelle balances her work and volunteering commitments while raising her three-year-old son and nine-month-old daughter.

Lucy Wark

Lucy is an entrepreneur and social innovator whose career spans management consulting, technology, education, and public‑interest advocacy. She earned a Double First in Politics, Psychology &a Sociology at Trinity College, followed by Management Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School, and a Master of Arts in Social Science at the University of Chicago as a Trinity–Chicago Exchange Scholar.

Lucy began her career at McKinsey & Company, advising major Australian organisations and government agencies, before moving into the startup sector and founding Normal in 2020, a company dedicated to improving public understanding of sexual health and wellbeing. Normal’s educational content has attracted more than 50 million views and has been featured across major media and industry platforms.

She later co‑founded Fuzzy, an online platform supporting people to build practical career skills such as negotiation, and she is one of the creators of Grapevine, a community‑driven initiative led by women in the Australian tech industry to reduce workplace sexual harassment.