Director, Dr Sara Hely

Sara is passionate about farming and regional industries, and works to ensure our environment is sustained for the enjoyment and production of healthy food for many generations to come. Experience has shown her that through creating workplaces that allow diverse, contested perspectives, we have all the brain power we need to solve these complex problems.

She has significant and wide-ranging experience in leadership roles in both state and federal government, as a company director of a not-for profit farmer group, and as a senior manager in large investors of agricultural research, development and extension.

Sara is the recipient of a number of awards and scholarships and am a fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, a current scholarship holder for the Victorian Women’s Board Leadership Program and the VESKI Women in STEMM leadership program.

She is passionate about building diversity and know-how into the thinking of current and next-generation scientists and innovators who work in farming, agriculture, food security, and the rural industries.