Rural Women's Network team
Sonia Muir, Manager - Community Engagement Unit
Sonia grew up on a banana plantation near the village of Chillingham about 20km from Murwillumbah in North New South Wales. She has a proud migrant heritage. Her father, a Romanian refugee arrived in Australia in 1949.
Sonia joined the Rural Women's Network (RWN) in 1993 and took over the role of Coordinator in 1998. Sonia has a new role as Manager of Industry & Investment NSW's Community Engagement Unit, however she still devotes some of her time to RWN projects and activities, including working 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.
Allison Priest, Project Coordinator - Rural Women's Network
Allison grew up in the Central West town of Orange, New South Wales and like many rural people she has remained in the town and has made it her home.
Her roles have seen her work on high profile projects and events for the department, including production of RWN's flagship publication, The Country Web newsletter which has become a valuable resource for government and non-government agencies to exchange information with the rural sector.
She has coordinated the NSW RIRDC Rural Women's Awards for the last five years and is responsible for administering key communication iniatives for the RWN including the website and RWN Email List. She also provides secretariat support to the NSW Rural Women's Council.
Her early projects include: Older Women Out There - a wellness project for older women living in rural and remote areas of NSW, Year of the Outback Women Overseas Study Scholarships, and the Team Up & Prosper - Rural Women in Decision Making Forum. In addition she was involved in the production of 'Daring to Dream: Stories of inspirational rural women' and 'Living Out Back: People of Western NSW', a coffee table style book depicting the lives and images of people living in the western division.