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I am a little excited as this month the team launched our final community event of the year on a topic very close to my heart – navigating career paths within the health and medical research ecosystem.

The reason is because of my own career journey. Long before Franklin Women, I was on a very traditional career path that started with a Bachelor of Science degree, then honours, PhD and post-doc. I had no idea what a social enterprise was, let alone did I think I would have started one. But, after a career that spanned lab research, public health policy and philanthropic research funding, here I am running a gender-equity based social enterprise.

Now that I am here, I feel confident that I have found my place in our sector, one where I can have the greatest impact and that is aligned with my strengths and values. But the journey here wasn’t as simple as how I wrote it above. It was peppered with confusion around the roles out there, guilt for letting down those who had invested in me and my career, uncertainty around what skills I had to offer, and even a bit of ego getting in the way of leaving my identify as the ‘researcher saving lives’.

But one thing that the Franklin Women community has shown me is that there are many rewarding career paths within our sector, academia, and healthcare, but also policy, consulting, advocacy, industry and beyond – the fun part is finding the one for you!. At this breakfast we have invited career transition coaches to share practical tips, as well as women who have traversed diverse paths to share their reflections and lessons learnt. 

One of these career transition stories belongs to Dr Megan Downie who wrote this month’s career profile. We also have a fab article on navigating conferences with kids, as well as lots of great reading and resources inspired by Women’s Health Week.

Happy reading,

In exciting news, Megan will be one of the table mentors at the Canberra edition of our upcoming Careers Transition breakfast! You can purchase a ticket for this in-person event in Sydney and Canberra (or both!)

Ironically, I am writing this commentary from an airport. I am waiting to fly home to Sydney after being in Vietnam for a work trip. It’s my first trip for the year, and I have tried to keep it short. As a mum of two boys, aged 6 and 8, I have been trying to keep work trips as brief as possible. I have also started to try to restrict my travel to the school holidays. But neither of these things is an easy endeavour...

Releasing the Menstrupedia book in Australia is a personal project of mine that was born from a need to find a good (and easy) way to teach my little cousin about menstruation when she got her first period while her mum was away a few years ago! I was surprised to see a lack of educational resources that were simple yet comprehensive enough for young children to independently learn about their periods in a fun way...

Women’s health! In celebration of Women’s Health Week earlier this month, here are some of our current favourite sources of info and updates on women’s health issues:

Till next month, your Newsletter Curator, Amy

Thank you to the Kolling Institute for investing in Franklin Women and our mission to create a health and medical research ecosystem where women thrive.