Inaugural Bridget Whelan Scholarship Awarded
14 September 2017
The Elizabeth Reid Network is very pleased to announce that the inaugural winner of the annual Bridget Whelan Scholarship is Ms Karelle Logan from Hobart, Tasmania.
The Bridget Whelan Scholarship is an annual award of $10,000 for female advisers in the Australian Labor Party. It is named in honour of the talented Bridget Whelan who worked in very senior adviser roles in the NSW and Federal Government for the Labor Party from 2000 to 2011. During this time Bridget also worked extremely hard to support, guide and mentor other female advisers.
Tragically Bridget passed away from ovarian cancer in 2016. As well as honouring Bridget’s enormous contributions to the ALP, the purpose of the Scholarship is to support current female advisers to extend and develop their skills and capacity and contribute further to the party – whether in policy, communications or leadership roles.
The 2017 scholarship winner, Ms Logan, is currently Deputy Chief of Staff to the Tasmanian Opposition Leader, Rebecca White MP. She has worked for numerous ALP members at both a Federal and State level over the past 17 years, and managed the very successful 2016 Federal Election campaign for Tasmania that saw Labor win 4 out of 5 House of Reps seats, and the successful re-election of 5 Labor women senators. Karelle also worked as Acting State Secretary for Tasmanian Labor in 2016.
In announcing the winner, Labor’s Deputy Leader The Hon. Tanya Plibersek, said “The Australian Labor Party is fortunate to have so many female staffers of such high calibre, and Karelle is an extremely worthy winner of this prestigious and important award”.
With her Scholarship funds, Karelle will attend a Wellstone Campaign Camp for progressive organising in the United States and use the knowledge gained to develop grass-roots organising and communications training modules to deliver to other women advisers here in Australia.
Leader of the Opposition in Tasmania, Rebecca White MP, said “Karelle is an extremely passionate and committed adviser who greatly enhances our team with her extensive experience and political insight. This Scholarship represents an extraordinary opportunity to further her own skills as well as bring new ideas back to her ALP colleagues for our important work in the years ahead.”
The Elizabeth Reid Network was formed in 2016 as a network for former and current female ALP staffers. It has over 1000 members and holds networking events and forums around Australia. Over one-third of the ALP federal caucus donated funds to the Scholarship.
“I was so thrilled to win the inaugural Bridget Whelan Scholarship - but even more blown away by the opportunity it gave to me travel to the US and learn first hand from progressive campaigners and organisers. I strongly encourage every woman staffer who has a passion for furthering their career, and the ALP’s election prospects, to apply for this amazing opportunity”.
—Karelle Logan,
Inaugural winner of the Bridget Whelan Scholarship, 2017.