Let’s Talk About Mentoring

For our first-ever event in Victoria, Franklin Women is excited to connect women working across the health and medical research ecosystem to talk about a topic very close to our hearts – mentoring!

The term ‘mentoring’ is mentioned a lot, especially how it can be an enabler for women in their careers. But what is mentoring, and how is it different to other professional development relationships such as sponsorship and coaching? And how might you go about developing mentee-mentor relationships in your career?

We have invited Dr Abby Jandro from Serendis Leadership to answer these questions and more. Abby is an expert in professional development relationships and has been responsible for delivering successful mentoring programs for women across a range of sectors (including our very own Franklin Women Mentoring Program!).

But we also know how important it is to learn from the experiences of others. So, we have invited women working within the health and medical research ecosystem to join us for a panel discussion to share their own experiences, lessons, and hot tips on with mentoring.

There will be plenty of time to ask questions and mingle over good food and drinks with women working in different roles, organisations and career levels within the sector in VIC.

3rd Jun 2025

From 5:30pm - 8:00pm

QT Melbourne

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Tickets

Registration for this event closes at 23:59 on Monday 26th May 2025.

In Person

Your ticket includes drinks & nibbles!

Ticket pricing

Members: $40.00
Non-member: $65.00

Buy member tickets or buy tickets as guest

Not a member? Want a discount? Add a Professional membership ($129.00 / year), Student Membership ($55.00 / year) or Leader membership ($249.00 / year) to your cart to receive a discounted ticket and be eligible for other member perks throughout the year!

Our Guest Speakers

Abby Jandro

Dr Abby Jandro is an experienced coach, consultant and facilitator who has worked with organisations ranging from small start-ups to Fortune Global 500 companies.

Before joining Serendis in 2015, Abby worked for the Royal Flying Doctor Service creating and implementing leadership development programs, team assessment and development workshops, as well as company-wide learning and development strategy.

Abby is driven to help clients build their leadership capability. Her professional education and senior leadership experience creates the ideal blend of psychology and business, and her supportive, yet straightforward approach and results-oriented attitude helps our clients reach their full potential.

Abby holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology and as a researcher, she has examined the impact of diversity in organisations. This work has explored factors that promote or hinder the productivity of teams, and she regularly applies her knowledge of diversity and team dynamics to help clients discover ways to overcome barriers to team effectiveness.

Flora Hui

Dr Flora Hui is an optometrist and Research Fellow at the Centre for Eye Research Australia with over 16 years of clinical experience. Her research focuses on clinical diagnostics and treatments for neurodegenerative eye conditions and improving pathways to eyecare. Flora balances her work life as a clinician, scientist, board director, public speaker, and educator. She is dedicated to encouraging the next generation to consider STEM careers through her work as a Director of the Toyota Community Foundation Australia, which supports programs to boost STEM education and teachers across Australia.

Flora is an experienced public speaker and science communicator and was selected for ABC Top 5 (Science) and Superstars of STEM. She has been both a mentor and a mentee, via formal and informal arrangements. Flora believes that finding the right mentor can open doors to untapped opportunities and help you achieve your career goals. Some key mentors over the years have shaped her career and trajectory. Likewise, being a mentor can inspire and support others in achieving their goals. Flora’s current mentees range from high school students to early career researchers, and she has also fostered peer mentoring groups.

Louise Purton

Professor Louise Purton is internationally recognised for her research delineating the intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of blood cell production in healthy and cancer states. She received the 2022 International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH) McCulloch and Till Award for her exceptional research contributions to the field of haematology and stem cells, being the first Australian woman to receive this award. She received the 2023 ISEH Award for Leadership in Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity.

Louise is also passionate about fostering the career development of the younger researchers and underserved groups in the workplace. In 2021 she founded Equity in Australian STEMM, a grassroots organisation comprising academics in Australia. Their advocacy significantly contributed to the recent changes in the NHMRC Investigator Grant funding scheme to improve funding outcomes for women and non-binary applicants.

Louise has had a profound bilateral hearing impairment since she was a child and recently became a recipient of two cochlear implants.

Udani Reets

Dr Udani Reets is a leading figure in Australia’s health and medical sector, and she is well-known for her expertise in driving successful, innovative, large-scale initiatives, partnerships, and services to improve healthcare. Her career is highlighted by considerable experience in advancing major national and international medical and health initiatives within the healthcare, medical research and university sectors.

She is inaugural CEO of the Children’s Cancer CoLab, Dr Reets co-founded WILD for STEM and holds a non-executive Director position at South Eastern Primary Health Network.

In her previous role as Director of Partnerships and Enterprise at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, she established and led the Centre’s partnership and commercial strategy function.

Dr Reets firmly believes in the power of collaboration, connection, and community as vital catalysts for change.

Joanne Tipper

Professor Joanne Tipper moved into the multidisciplinary research field of medical engineering in the mid 1990s after completing a PhD in skin microbiology. Over the last 30 years she has developed methodologies for isolating wear particles generated by total joint replacements. With over 100 peer reviewed publications her work has contributed to the understanding of implant failure and the development of longer lasting, more reliable joint replacement devices. Joanne has co-authored all of the international global standards on the isolation and characterisation of wear particles including ISO 17853 and ASTMF1877. In addition, Joanne led the development of two European Pre-standards CWA 17253:1 and CWA 17253:2 which cover isolation of very low volumes of nanoscale particles and biological responses to wear particles. Both of these documents are currently being converted to ISO standards. Her areas of interest include using 3D bioprinting to investigate spinal cord injury alongside projects investigating neural stem cell and primary neural cell responses to spinal implants debris/ions and to matrix stiffness of novel hydrogel scaffolds for central nervous system repair.

In 2018, Joanne relocated from the University of Leeds in the UK to Australia to take up the position of Head of School of a new School of Biomedical Engineering at UTS. She further developed her leadership skills, serving as Acting Dean of the Graduate research School during COVID-19 and Acting Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Engineering & IT at UTS. More recently, she has been appointed to the role of ADVC Academic in the STEM College at RMIT, a role responsible for academic governance of taught programs and for supporting staff and student experience. Throughout her career Joanne has been lucky enough to have access to great mentors and she feels it is important to pay that forward, mentoring researchers and academics, both formally and informally.