Sharon Lockwood named finalist in SA Women of Impact Awards

Sharon Lockwood, Respect and Safety Project Manager at the University of Divinity and the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide’s Survivors’ Advocate, has been named a finalist in the 2026 South Australian Women of Impact Awards. Winners and finalists were recognised during a recent ceremony at South Australia’s Government House on 8 September 2026, with Stacey Nelan named the category winner.

The annual Women of Impact Awards, managed by the South Australian Government’s Office for Women are a chance to celebrate and honour women whose service, leadership and commitment are helping to create positive change across South Australia. This year, 139 nominations were received recognising women from a wide range of communities, backgrounds and industries.

Nominated in the Impact on Ending Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence category, Sharon was acknowledged for her more than three decades of specialist work supporting victim-survivors of gender-based violence and helping institutions respond with greater care and accountability.  Sharon was nominated by Archbishop Brad Billings for her significant contribution to the Anglican Church’s work preventing and responding to domestic, family and sexual violence across the Diocese, the State and nationally.  Sharon continues to work part time as Survivors’ Advocate and part time in her role with the University as Respect and Safety Project Manager.  Both roles enable her to advance trauma informed prevention and response to gender-based violence, and institutional culture change.

Sharon work has focused on supporting people affected by sexual, domestic, and family violence throughout her 35-year social work career.  She has held leadership roles in health, higher education and community settings, including 21 years at Yarrow Place Rape and Sexual Assault Service and she has worked as the Diocese’s first Survivors’ Advocate since 2021.  Sharon is also a member of the Diocese’s Domestic and Family Violence Working Group.  Sharon has contributed to policy and practice at a national level, as an appointed member of the National Women’s Safety Alliance Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence working groups from 2021 – 2025.  She is currently an Affiliate Member of Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) and she contributed to the authorship of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s Good Practice Note: Preventing and responding to sexual assault and sexual harassment in the Australian higher education sector in 2020.

Recognised for her leadership and commitment to trauma-informed, survivor-centred practice, Sharon received a Women’s and Children’s Hospital Friends Fellowship in 2012 to undertake international professional development in the United States on gender-based violence prevention and response, attending the Ending Violence against Women International conference and visiting the Center for Community Solutions in San Diego, California, USA. In 2025 Sharon made submissions to the South Australian Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, drawing on her years in the sector to put forward recommendations on prevention, response, recovery and system coordination, and highlighting the heightened risk of gender-based violence faced by marginalised groups.