Acknowledgements

PHOTOS: (Clockwise from top left) Acram Taji, The Sibyl Centre, Sara Saleh, Alana Blackburn

ACKNOWLEDGING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR EXTENDED COMMUNITY.

Officially opened in 2018, the College’s Sibyl Centre won a 2020 Good Design Australia Award. The Award citation notes that “The Sibyl Centre synthesises the historical, geometrical, intellectual and social pursuits of The Women’s College into an architectural language. The forms and spaces are part of the ongoing evolution of the College, a series of public rooms and external expressions that embody and contemporise its important history and particular culture.” Sibyl has also been short-listed for the 2021 Australian Institute of Architecture Awards. At the time of publication, the winner had not been announced.

Several Women’s College alumnae have gained recent honours and awards. Emeritus Professor Acram TAJI [1973-74; 78] received a Medal of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2020 Australia Day Honours “for significant service to education, and to horticultural science, particularly to plant technology.” Acram is a global humanitarian educator and advocate for women in agriculture. She is currently Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Professor at several universities abroad, with a research specialty in in vitro plant breeding and plant tissue culture. As an “agricultural crusader” she has lectured internationally on the challenges faced by humanity with respect to food, water and energy security.

Karen BINNEKAMP [1983-84] received the Public Service Medal in the 2020 Australia Day Honours list for her “outstanding public service to health, particularly through improvements to listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and subsidy of breakthrough medical treatments.” A pharmacist by training, Karen has worked for almost 20 years at the Department of Health and Ageing. Dr Susan GRAHAM [2005-07] was named Advance Awards Emerging Leader Winner in 2020. Susan was honoured for her work in leading a team of engineers, plant scientists and drone operators in tackling global scale deforestation. As Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Dendra Systems, Susan deploys a combination of data analytics, Artificial Intelligence and drones to restore natural ecosystems, enabling large scale management and restoration. The Advance Awards recognise the achievements of Australians working abroad.

Dr Alana BLACKBURN [2001-04] received the Arts and Culture Award in the Armidale Regional Council Australia Day Awards in 2021. Alana teaches music at the University of New England and is a Board Member of the New England Conservatorium of Music. Alana’s citation notes that she “has been a driving force behind getting teachers from the New England Conservatorium to provide practical tuition to UNE students in 2020.” Alana is also involved in the Armidale Choral Weekend and UNE Chamber Ensemble Programme.

In 2021 Sara SALEH [2005-07] became the first poet to win two prestigious Australian poetry awards in the same year. Sara’s poem ‘Poetics of Fo(u)rgetting’, exploring the experiences of a resettled Lebanese family living in Sydney’s west, recently won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Her poem ‘Border Control: Meditations’ gained first place in the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, announced in March 2021.