Age: 55

Role: Executive Director/Clinical Supervisor

What is your job? The Executive Director part of my job is to manage the day to day business of the Women's Resource Centre (WRC) and to raise funds for the organisation. Staff management is part of that. I report to a board of directors whose job is to oversee governance of the organisation.

The Clinical Supervisor part is to provide support and direction to the clinical staff and the hotline volunteers. We are a very small office, currently with three staff members there daily, so supervision discussions can be impromptu and as required.

What is your favourite part of the job? Oddly enough I love fund development. This surprised me as much as anybody else! However, I have the benefit of some very staunch and committed allies, individuals as well corporate donors. Both have been financially generous but also generous in terms of personal support and with business advice. Those relationships have helped make the task more enjoyable.

What is the least favourite part of the job? Perhaps being misunderstood. Empowering women is not about seizing power and control or abusing others. Empowering women is about supporting women to achieve their best possible selves as they see it. Not how I see it, or how the community sees it, not tied to attitudes and beliefs of others but based on their own desires and needs, without having to apologise for it. Empowerment is about equality.

What is your most interesting experience at work? When I joined the WRC I was counseling. I think client contact and hearing women's stories is the key experience. Women's resilience is astonishing.

What would you be doing otherwise? Working at the WRC is more than a job. It's a lifestyle, it's about my core beliefs, it's about the way I think about the world. Realistically, I wouldn't work anywhere else. But, when I am finished my work at the WRC I would be an artist if I could make it financially viable. Having said that my artwork almost always is a social commentary on women's roles, women's rights, just like my current job.