Western Sydney Women Awards 2026

These awards celebrate women across all stages of life, business and career throughout the Greater Western Sydney region, recognising their achievements, leadership and impact.

We are proud that our awards program is free to enter and for finalists to attend, ensuring accessibility and inclusion for all women in Western Sydney.

Congratulations to our 2026 Winners and Finalists

Western Sydney Woman in Leadership

Belinda Leonard

Belinda Leonard has spent more than a decade as CEO of Noro Music Therapy in Penrith, growing it into a team of 30 Registered Music Therapists and Community Musicians who reach more than 2,500 people every week. She built Guitars for Vets into a DVA-funded program now expanding into Queensland.

Breaking long-standing barriers in sport, Belinda was the first woman appointed to the Penrith Panthers Board, then the first woman elected to it. She also sits on the Panthers Foundation and Penrith Valley Sports Foundation Boards, chairs the Community Advisory Committee at Nepean Blue Mountains LHD & PHN and advises Western Sydney University’s medical program, championing equality and fair access to healthcare.

She founded Walk It Off Women, a grassroots mental health initiative, and mentors young women through the Panthers Foundation Empowering Young Women program. Her greatest impact is the path she leaves behind: more women at the table, and more people in Western Sydney who feel they belong there.

Proudly sponsored by Hudson Hotel & Events Centre

Finalists

Cathy Crowe

Helen Emmerson

Nevine Youssef

Western Sydney Community Woman of the Year

Kirsty Parkes

Kirsty Parkes is Founder and CEO of Community Café Outreach Service Inc., a Western Sydney-based, not-for-profit charitable organisation that provides food, emergency supplies, practical help, social support and referrals to people facing disadvantage or isolation, all free of charge.

Community Café has supported 29,293 people, providing 67,400 meals, 96,480 pantry items and $536,790 worth of frozen meat. Its weekly Tuesday dinner has served more than 8,300 plates, offering a safe, welcoming place to eat and connect.

For local children, Kirsty has provided 4,470 school lunch packs and more than 8,000 sandwiches. Her work also tackles food insecurity and waste, diverting 138,773 kilograms of food and 12,660 kilograms of clothing from landfill to people who need them.

Supported by a dedicated network of volunteers, Kirsty has created a genuine sense of belonging for people who may otherwise feel isolated or overlooked, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

Proudly sponsored by Blossom Hair, Face & Wig Boutique

Finalists

Bijinder Dugal OAM

Harseen Sahota

Indu Ponnusamy

Kathryn Hammond

Nemat Kharboutli

Western Sydney Young Woman of the Year

Alyssa Afiouni

Alyssa Afiouni is a 21-year-old law and business student at the University of Wollongong and a Law Clerk in Campbelltown, the first in her immediate family to pursue a legal career. Her leadership is built on listening to people and turning their needs into practical action.

As Liverpool Campus Student Representative and a member of UOW’s Collaborative Delivery Oversight Committee, she advocates for inclusion and brings a student voice to university governance. She also supports students as a Student Engagement Officer and Law Pod Peer Mentor.

Seeing the need for more student-led connection at Liverpool, she co-founded UOW Connect Studio and serves as Vice-President. Nationally, she contributes to the National Student Ombudsman’s Student Collective, and her presentation was accepted for the 2026 Global Students as Partners Roundtable. A 2026 LawUno Community Impact Award finalist, she plans to use the law to create positive outcomes across Western Sydney.

Proudly sponsored by Bright Print Group

Finalists

Ceyda Nalbantoglu

Hafsa Faizan

Sansita Verma

Selina Ha

Tajana Terzic

Western Sydney Woman in STEM

Mona Chiha

Mona Chiha is defining the field of Algorithmic Law and has built the infrastructure that demonstrates it. Through her industry PhD at UTS, she is tackling legal AI’s biggest safety failure: systems that cite cases that don’t exist.

Her platform, JurisTechne, checks every citation against a manually constructed Australian legal knowledge graph and drops any that fail, and runs locally so client data stays private. It went live in February 2026 and has more than 1,100 practitioners waitlisted. Mona has co-authored a paper with a Queensland District Court judge on responsible AI use in court.

Before law, she founded and exited several technology and financial services businesses. Mona holds an MBA from UTS, is completing a Juris Doctor at UNSW and is an industry PhD candidate at UTS. She was named Innovator of the Year at the 2026 Australian Law Awards and was a 2025 AI Academic of the Year finalist.

Mona is a Women's Committee member of the Canterbury-Bankstown Chamber of Commerce and chair of OneMaronite, a medical-aid charity she runs from Strathfield. She mentors women in law, business and STEM.

Proudly sponsored by SETS AV

Finalists

Dr. Deepthi Mahadeva, AuD

Dr. Kathryn Williams

Suzannah Keene

Tharika Kahandawa Arachchi

Western Sydney Business Woman of the Year

A/Prof Indika Alahakoon

A/Prof Indika Alahakoon is an Obstetrician and Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist who has built a unique circle of pregnancy care in Western Sydney. Through thousands of conversations with pregnant women, she has developed a deep understanding of what they need beyond medical care.

Over the past five years, she has grown Centre for Women’s Ultrasound from a single doctor clinic into a multidisciplinary centre of excellence, adding three fetal medicine specialists and pathology services and tripling in size. She also founded Pregnancy and Baby Co, offering pregnancy-safe skincare and postnatal products, and Aurellia Wellness for Women in Westmead, bringing physiotherapy, massage, yoga and Pilates together.

Alongside her businesses, she continues to care for complex and high risk pregnancies and has trained six student sonographers with Western Sydney University.

Proudly sponsored by Entrepreneurial & Small Business Women Australia (ESBWA)

Finalists

Bernadette Habkouk

Crystal Paduch

Evra Ozen

Monica Willats

Western Sydney Women Changemaker

Yasmine Turner

Yasmine Turner is the founder of My Financial Future, a social enterprise teaching young Australians aged 14 to 25 the money skills school leaves out. After five years in financial planning and being named Paraplanner of the Year at the 2026 Women in Wealth Awards, she left her career to build her financial literacy course, FinReady.

Grants fund free places for First Nations and low socioeconomic young people, those with disability and those affected by family violence. She has delivered programs to Indigenous students, flood-affected Mid North Coast communities and remote students, and is expanding into regional NSW with Rabobank and NAB Foundation support.

Named Rising Woman of Western Sydney 2026, she is using that scholarship to fund free workshops for 250 young adults. Her goal is to reach one million young Australians.