In this first episode of the new Women on Boards Honours Podcast Series - featuring the 12 WOB members recognised in the 2024 Australia Day Honours - WOB co-founder and Executive Director, Claire Braund, chats with Emerita Professor Lesley Hitchens. Lesley was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to tertiary education, and to the law. This is only the second year that the majority of honours were awarded to women since the national system formally began on 14 February 1975 – nearly 50 years ago. Lesley had a long and distinguished legal career, starting in Sydney at Allens before she headed overseas to London in the mid-1980s and became immersed in the world of legal British academia. She returned to Australia in mid 2000 and took up roles with the University of Melbourne and then UNSW and UTS where she finished up as Dean and then Acting Provost.  Lesley has received many honours from peers including as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and awarded the Financial Times Australian Legal Innovator Award in 2018. She is on the board of Shopfront Arts Coop. Find out more about Women on Boards Visit our Events Calendar Subscribe (free) or join Women on Boards Follow us on LinkedIn