Sonia Muir, Coordinator

Sonia grew up on a banana plantation near the village of Chillingham about 20kms from Murwillumbah in North New South Wales. She has a proud migrant heritage. Her father, a Romanian refugee arrived in Australia in 1949.

Sonia has been with the Rural Women's Network (RWN) since 1993 and Coordinator since 1998. She continues to work with a key range of stakeholders to champion rural issues and encourage women to acknowledge and value their current and past experiences while embracing emerging opportunities.

"We continue to focus on improving women's confidence by providing access to self development workshops, facilitating strategic networking and expanding opportunities to share information and stories.

She was the inaugural editor of the RWN newsletter The Country Web and pioneered the RWN website.

In her 'former life' Sonia worked in adult and community education and taught Visual Arts at high schools in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has a Masters of Applied Science (Social Ecology), a degree in Art Education and post graduate qualifications in Adult Literacy.

Sonia is currently a member the NSW Western Institute of TAFE Council and a Board member of CONTACT a program working with families living in isolated areas of NSW. Sonia is a graduate of the Vincent Fairfax Leadership and Commonwealth Study Programs and informally mentors many women aspiring to leadership roles.

Her interests include: enjoying all art forms, travelling, cooking and quaffing the wonderful local produce of Orange. Sonia is married to Gordon a former chef whom she met on a train in Spain!

Her skills include: facilitating workshops, community development, networking and team building, guest speaker on rural womens issues.