THE Department of Health’s chief nurse and midwifery officer, Catherine Stoddart, was named the 2011 Western Australia Business Woman of the Year at the annual Telstra WA Business Women’s awards earlier this week.
Ms Stoddart is responsible for leading 12,000 nurses and midwives in the public system, as well as providing professional leadership for about 35,000 private and non-government nurses.
Also winner of the White Pages Community & Government Award, Ms Stoddart has led strategies to build stronger nursing career paths to attract more Aboriginal people to the profession and provide volunteers for under-serviced remote and international locations.
One of her key achievements was the establishment of Assistant in Nursing traineeships for those who have not completed tertiary level requirements but want to get into the profession.
Other winners included Pauline Francis from LJ Hooker, Amber Stanton from Minter Ellison, Sasha de Bretton from Million Dollar Makeovers, and Juliette Sperber from POAGS.
The WA winners proceed to the national finals.
