Amanda Leck is the Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) where she leads a program of work on behalf of the Commonwealth Government through the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.

I didn’t know that my current role even existed when I began my career in the mid-80s. There was never a grand plan to one day lead a National Institute that works to support Australians to be more resilient to disasters. Upon reflection, it seems all my previous roles have led me to this place.

At Toorak, my favourite subjects were English and History.

I followed my passion and studied at The University of Melbourne graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History and Philosophy. I honed my research and writing skills and undertook a journalism cadetship at Southdown Press on New Idea magazine.

Toorak instilled in my cohort a “can do” attitude, to empower us to achieve whatever we wanted. This was at a time when there were still so many structural barriers to the full participation of women in the workplace such as a lack of high-quality childcare and parental leave provisions. I have carried this “can do” attitude throughout my life, never saying no to a new opportunity, and this has impacted my career choices and direction.

As a young married woman with three small children I became involved with the local community, joining the Country Fire Authority brigade, helping to establish a Kindergarten, and volunteering my time at the Neighbourhood House.

I gained skills in community development and community engagement through hands-on learning and this, together with my communications background and life experience living in a high bushfire risk area, led me to a career in helping communities to be prepared for bushfire.

I joined the CFA staff in a full time capacity and worked on behaviour change programs to encourage those living in high-risk communities to be prepared for the threat of bushfire. These programs were founded on research and evidence and designed to shift people’s thinking to understand and personalise their bushfire risk, and then to take action.

Up until this time, fire services had traditionally been focused on response and were male dominated.

Prevention and preparedness programs were relatively new and convincing some of those who had been in the fire services for many years that there was another way to save lives and property by empowering communities to take action before a fire started, came with challenges. However, research demonstrated that this approach was sound, and some 20 years later fire services are investing more in community engagement and development programs to build more resilient communities.

Following 10 years with the CFA I worked with local government on a community resilience building project before taking a role with AFAC, the National Council for fire and emergency services, as Director of Community Safety, and then to my current role as Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR).

AIDR influences change through four key strategies: it creates, grows, and supports a range of networks; builds national capability through learning, development and innovation; shares knowledge and resources to enable informed decision making and action; and facilitates thought leadership through national conversations on disaster risk reduction and resilience.

Over recent years, as the impacts of climate change have led to more frequent disasters of a greater scale than we have experienced before in Australia and across the globe, we are seeing a growing community of people across a broad range of sectors who are working together to reduce disaster risk.

If we, as a community, are to cope, adapt and transform in the context of increasing climate risks, we need new leadership qualities to meet the challenges of the future. Women will play a key role as we work to navigate an uncertain future together. Women value relationships and relationships lead to collaboration. Collaboration drives innovation and leads to doing things differently.

I have the privilege of leading the Institute as we work to catalyse change so that Australian communities, economies and the environment are more resilient to disasters. And I know that we will have a growing cohort of young women, in particular, stepping up to address the challenges that the future holds.