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Tools for Changemakers

Practical skills for purpose-driven leadership

Tools for Changemakers is a dynamic workshop series designed to equip women and gender-diverse people with the skills, tools, and mindset to lead with confidence, navigate change, and build collective impact.

Through virtual 90-minute lunchtime sessions, expert facilitators will guide you through practical strategies to strengthen your leadership, coaching, communication, and resilience.

UPCOMING SESSIONS

2026 Workshops

Whether you’re leading a team, a movement, or your own changemaking journey, these sessions offer space to reflect, connect, and grow—so you can take bold, confident action for our environment and climate.

Tuesday, 10 February 2026

Design Your 2026 with WELA

Facilitator: Carli Leimbach, WELA’s Leadership Programs Director

Clarify your vision, set actionable goals, and build a support structure to help you thrive in 2026 and beyond.

Tuesday, 14 April 2026

Courageous Conversations

Facilitators: Carli Leimbach and Kara Virik (WELA Programs Team)

Inspired by emerging thinking on the transformative power of conflict, this workshop explores how courageous conversations allow us to repair trust, deepen collaboration and strengthen collective leadership.

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Power Mapping for Change

Facilitators: Cherry Muddle and Ruth Langford

Learn how to use “power mapping” as a tool for moving from frustration to strategy. Drawing on the campaign to stop dredging and dumping on the Great Barrier Reef, this session will explore how mapping power, building unlikely alliances and organising people power helped shift what once seemed immovable. You’ll leave the workshop with a new understanding of power and a practical tool you can apply to your own campaign, project or change work.

Tuesday, 15 September 2026

Communicating Hard Truths

Facilitators: Dr Yolanda Waters and Kirsty Costa

Dr Yolanda Waters and Kirsty Costa explore how to communicate difficult environmental realities honestly, while keeping people engaged and making action possible.

REGISTER HERE
Tuesday, 29 October 2026

Unlikely Allies

Facilitators: Kelly O’Shanassy and Victoria McKenzie-McHarg

Kelly O’Shanassy and Victoria McKenzie-McHarg explore how to find common ground and make progress with people, organisations and institutions you don’t always agree with.

REGISTER HERE

Meet the facilitators

Ruth Langford, Facilitator, Songwoman, Storyteller, Activist and founder of Nayri Niara

As a Songwoman and Storyteller, Ruth draws upon the cultural knowledge of her Yorta Yorta / Dja Dja Wurrung lineage and the Palawa Aboriginal community in Lutruwita / Tasmania where she was born, continues to live, and holds cultural responsibility. As lead campaigner for Stand with Uncle Jim she combines forty years traveling the world sitting with First Nations Elders, Senior Knowledge Keepers and World Wisdom Teachers with consciousness research, Ruth’s vision is to connect people to earth honouring wisdom in a contemporary and relevant context through the expression of cultural arts, ceremony and ritual.

Cherry Muddle, WELA Facilitator & Partnerships Manager

With over a decade of experience in environmental and climate justice, Cherry has worked across grassroots organising, international campaigns to protect the Great Barrier Reef, and community leadership to support people-powered change. Cherry has co-created grassroots networks in Queensland and New South Wales, where she continues to participate in people-powered movements for climate justice. Grounded in relationship-building, communications, and movement organising, she is passionate about creating spaces where communities can build collective power and create change. Outside campaigning, Cherry volunteers as a mentor with WELA and as a wildlife bird carer.

Dr Yolanda Waters, Founder and CEO of Divers for Climate

Dr. Yolanda Waters is a dive instructor turned marine social scientist and the founder and CEO of Divers for Climate, a national movement of divers and dive professionals across Australia mobilised for climate action. Inspired by her time working on the Great Barrier Reef, she now designs evidence-based climate communication and engagement strategies that empower ocean communities to drive systemic change. Through her research, advocacy and media work, Yolanda is building a climate movement as diverse and dynamic as the ocean itself so that we can continue diving for generations to come.

Kirsty Costa, WELA Director of Communications and Engagement

Kirsty is the Director of Communications and Engagement at WELA. She is a strategic communications expert and environmental leader with more than 20 years’ experience working across the environment, education and community sectors. Her previous roles include leadership positions at Zoos Victoria, CERES, Cool.org and Climate Reality Australia. She is also the creator of Weekend Birder, one of Australia’s most listened-to nature podcasts and a trusted platform for storytelling and everyday science. Kirsty’s work reflects an understanding that better environmental decisions are made when a wider range of voices, experiences and perspectives are part of the conversation.

Kelly O’Shanassy, Environmental Leader, Board Director and Executive Coach

Kelly O’Shanassy is one of Australia’s most recognised environmental leaders, having served as CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation for more than a decade. Across over 20 years of leadership spanning the not-for-profit, business and government sectors, Kelly has led transformational change through cross-sector collaboration, bringing together NGOs, businesses, unions and governments to secure policy and legislative reform, influence national conversations and create lasting impact. She now works as a Chair, Non-Executive Director and executive coach, helping leaders and organisations navigate complexity, strengthen governance and turn ambitious goals into meaningful change.

Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, WELA CEO

Victoria McKenzie-McHarg is one of Australia’s most respected and compelling voices on the critical intersection of climate action and gender equity. With nearly twenty years’ experience in climate campaigning and strategy, she has led efforts to make Australia’s response to the climate crisis more effective, inclusive, and just. Former Chair of the Climate Action Network Australia and current CEO of Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA), Victoria combines sharp strategic insight with deep experience supporting grassroots and community leaders. Her work reveals how advancing gender equity and climate justice go hand in hand, and how the leadership of women and gender-diverse people is driving the bold, collective action our planet urgently needs.

What participants say

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“Thank you for the inspiring session today. You really reignited my self-determination and gave me the push I needed.”

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“Great vibes, great discussion, lots of WELA love and positivity, but also space to explore and be vulnerable.”

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“I was surprised by how readily connected we were.”

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This session has really reinforced feelings of community and connection.

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“It was both enlightening and encouraging.”