{"id":37824,"date":"2026-03-07T07:34:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=37824"},"modified":"2026-03-07T07:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:34:56","slug":"winners-of-nawic-nsw-leadership-scholarships-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/winners-of-nawic-nsw-leadership-scholarships-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners of NAWIC NSW leadership scholarships revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two incredible women leaders in the construction industry have each been awarded a National Association of Women in Construction NSW (NAWIC NSW) scholarship to further their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This NSW Women\u2019s Week, the Minns Labor Government is boosting women\u2019s advancement, with the sponsorship of two National Association of Women in Construction NSW (NAWIC NSW) scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scholarships were awarded at NAWIC NSW International Women\u2019s Day lunch on Friday 6 March to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Isabel Duffy, Principal Structural Engineer at Northrop\u00a0<\/strong>who received the inaugural $15,000 Emerging Women\u2019s Leader Scholarship.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Nishmin Hallam, Director at Taylor Thomson Whitting (TTW) Engineers\u00a0<\/strong>who received the $30,000 Executive Women\u2019s Leadership Scholarship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Created to recognise women who have made a significant impact on the construction industry and demonstrate potential as future leaders, the scholarships were funded by the NSW Government\u2019s $20.2 million Women in Construction program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These game-changing scholarships have the potential to change the career trajectory of the recipient and reflects the NSW Government\u2019s commitment to attracting and retaining women in building industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The program provides funding for executive-level further education to equip senior women in the construction sector with the leadership skills to drive industry change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Isabel&nbsp;<\/strong>is already an outstanding leader in Northrop, growing the organisation\u2019s largest business units, as well as leading the charge for 30 per cent representation of women across all management levels by 2030. She also co-founded Tomorrow\u2019s Women in Construction to build a sustainable pipeline of women entering the industry. She will use the scholarship to undertake the Graduate Certificate of Social Impact and the Accelerated Leadership Program at UNSW\u2019s Australian Graduate School of Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nishmin<\/strong>&nbsp;has had a 20-year career with TTW and is the firm\u2019s first and only female director in a technical role. She\u2019s committed to mentoring talent, particularly women, advocacy and advancing gender diversity within the profession. She will use the scholarship to undertake the Advanced Management Program at Melbourne Business School to elevate her leadership capability and strategic influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous Executive Women\u2019s Leadership Scholarship recipients include 2025 winner&nbsp;<strong>Nicole Waterman<\/strong>, Project Leader at Laing O\u2019Rourke, 2024 winner&nbsp;<strong>Jua Cilliers<\/strong>, Head of the School of Built Environment at UTS, and 2023 winner&nbsp;<strong>Talia Keyes,<\/strong>&nbsp;General Manager for Design with Scentre Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To find out more about the Women in Construction program visit:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsw.gov.au\/employment\/women-construction\">Women in Construction | NSW Government<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nawic.com.au\/Site\/Chapters\/NSW\/NEW-NSW-Scholarships.aspx\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NAWIC NSW Scholarships<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Minister for Women Jodie Harrison said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe NSW Government is proud to sponsor the NAWIC scholarships as part of our ongoing work to empower and create opportunities for women in the building and construction industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThrough our Women in Construction program, we are working towards creating a more diverse and robust sector. Part of that is attracting and retaining women in the industry, as well as making sure they have pathways to leadership, which is what these scholarships are all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCongratulations to Nishmin and Isabel. You\u2019re both an inspiration to up-and-coming women in the industry \u2013 and I look forward to seeing where these scholarships can take you in your career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Infrastructure NSW Chief Executive, Tom Gellibrand said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCongratulations to Nishmin Hallam, recipient of the 2026 NAWIC NSW Executive Women\u2019s Leadership Scholarship and Isabel Duffy, recipient of the Emerging Leader Scholarship. Both accomplished women exemplify the leadership, capability and commitment these scholarships are designed to support, at different but equally important stages of their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNishmin\u2019s progression from cadet to Director at Taylor Thomson Whitting, alongside her long\u2011standing commitment to mentoring and industry leadership, and Isabel\u2019s work as a Principal Structural Engineer at Northrop and co\u2011founder of Tomorrow\u2019s Women in Construction, demonstrate the impact women are having across the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through the NSW Women in Construction program, we are proud to partner with NAWIC to support initiatives that strengthen leadership pathways and build a more diverse, inclusive and future ready construction industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NAWIC NSW Co-President, Taleah Stofka said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNAWIC NSW is committed to collaboratively driving gender equity through culture change and we are proud to offer two scholarships this year to support women in leadership roles to strengthen their capability, influence, and industry impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Executive Women\u2019s Leadership Scholarship and the inaugural Emerging Executive Women\u2019s Leadership Scholarship enable further study for two amazing leaders who are already making a significant difference in the construction sector with strong ongoing support from their employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCongratulations to our 2026 recipients Nishmin Hallam and Isabel Duffy, we look forward to seeing your careers develop further through your studies funded with these scholarships. Having women represented at decision-making levels helps to create inclusive, productive, and high-performing workplaces and we thank the NSW Government for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two incredible women leaders in the construction industry have each been awarded a National Association of Women in Construction NSW (NAWIC NSW) scholarship to further their careers. This NSW Women\u2019s Week, the Minns Labor Government is boosting women\u2019s advancement, with the sponsorship of two National Association of Women in Construction NSW (NAWIC NSW) scholarships. The &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/winners-of-nawic-nsw-leadership-scholarships-revealed\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Winners of NAWIC NSW leadership scholarships revealed&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37825,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37824\/revisions\/37825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}