Critical in securing senior roles is the knowledge that a career will progress after a break, because balancing family and work can be quite difficult, and overseas placements with partners and children, a challenge. Add to this the new ‘norm’ of hybrid working arrangements, where your home may have become your office, also impacting families and that work/life balance. 

So how do working mothers and those with other caring responsibilities ‘juggle’ their roles and responsibilities in the sector, and what can we do to better carve out the necessary flexibilities, to ensure we don’t lose staff, particularly those in direct program roles?

Our vision is an aid and development sector in which women support women to be successful in their careers and to achieve gender parity across leadership roles. Our Speakers share their experience and how they faced challenges in securing roles and progressing their careers to become Team leaders, Managers, CEO's and Directors.

Avoid the cold and join our Winter Online session from home at lunchtime on Tuesday 16 July, to hear first-hand experience of Sector Mothers, and others, and how organisations in the sector can better support career development. 

Speakers

Jenny Bell

Jenny Bell was the People & Organisational Development (POD) Director at The Fred Hollows Foundation for 12 years and left earlier this year to focus on her family and start a consultancy with her husband. During her time with The Fred Hollows Foundation, she was an integral member of the Executive Leadership Team and was accountable for the development and implementation of the organisation’s People strategy and effective delivery of its people practices across 22 countries. Jenny was a strong advocate for balancing work and family commitments and led by example being the first part-time Executive Leader at The Foundation, following the birth of her son, and implemented many practices to enable staff at all levels within The Foundation team to balance their work and family commitments.

She is a commercial, collaborative, pragmatic, results-oriented Executive Leader who has been a trusted advisor to CEOs, Boards, Executive Leaders and Partners to drive high performance, cultural and organisational transformation, resolve challenging issues and achieve results through cycles of growth and mergers in complex international organisations across multiple industries.

Jenny is a Director of the The Fred Hollows Foundation Social Action Fund (USA), and a Chartered Member of the Australian Human Resources Institute. She has an Executive MBA, Bachelor of Arts in HR Management and has completed the AICD Company Directors course.

Vivian Chordi

Vivian works in the higher education sector advising global citizenship education programs, specialising in human rights, cultural diplomacy, and stakeholder engagement.  She is a passionate advocate for cross-sector collaboration, mentorship, and empowering the next generation of leaders to think critically about their role as global citizens, by creating a more peaceful, sustainable, and equitable society for all.

Vivian has worked in Bangladesh, integrating gender mainstreaming into food security programs; in Colombia securing grants to combat gender-based violence; and Cambodia Consulting on child rights and protection. Vivian is also an experienced facilitator and has led the development and implementation of training workshops, cultural programs, and humanitarian design summits across Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Cambodia, and China. 

Vivian holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring Politics, International Relations & Cultural Studies and a Masters of Peace and Conflict Studies from The University of Sydney.

Casey McCowan

Casey is the Head of Institutional Funding at The Fred Hollows Foundation. Over her 15-year career in the development sector, she has worked with ActionAid, The University of Melbourne, the Victorian government and managing contractors of the Australian Aid Program.