Jane Hutchinson, Executive Director, Strategy and Innovation, The Nature Conservancy Australia Program

The Observership Program continues to provide significant value and support to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and our work in Australia. We were very grateful this year to have Laura Parr, Strategy and Insights Manager at Google, join our Board of Trustees as part of the Program.  Not being content to just “observe”, Laura was instrumental in assisting The Nature Conservancy Australia Program team to take a deep dive into one of the key barriers for the career progression of women.  Through Laura’s leadership, a women’s empowerment workshop was facilitated at the Google Headquarters in Melbourne in late June 2019.  A group of 15 women attended the workshop and were coached in self-promotion techniques based on illuminating research, carefully crafted for the Australian context. As a consequence of Laura’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives, we now have regular meetings to support our TNC Australia women to make their maximum contribution and have started to discuss broadening the conversation out for greater diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives within the team, beyond gender. We are enormously grateful to Laura for her diligent support in the advancement of TNC Australia’s women and for her curiosity in exploring the world of nature conservation.  Thank you to Google for supporting Laura on that journey and to the Observership Program for making it all happen.”

The Nature Conservancy Australia Program – Participating Not-For-Profit in 2019 and 2020.