Our Ambassadors

Peta Irving is a Navy (Permanent Force) and Army (Reserve) veteran of over thirty years.   Peta was a Maritime Logistics Officer, having served in Operation Relex and becoming a Logistics IT specialist.   Peta has a Master of Business Administration, a Graduate Diploma in Management, and a Graduate Certificate in Vocational Education and Training. She has also completed the Australian Institute Company Directors course. Peta is a sessional lecturer in the Master of Project Management course at Victoria University, Melbourne, and consults with Supply Chain and Logistics companies on gender requirements.  Peta has been the main researcher and author of the Women in Supply Chain discussion papers on the Unseen Gender in Transport and Logistics.  Peta was previously a member of the Victorian Veterans Council, an independent statutory body that provides advice to the Minister for Veterans on support for veterans’ commemoration, education, and welfare.  She is currently a member of the Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Commissioner Victoria Ex-Service Organization forum. Peta’s passion is seeing women veterans’ stories told and supporting women veterans through lobbying for recognition of their issues and has used this platform to further her advocacy efforts. 

Sarah Watson served in the Australian Army from 1997 to 2015, performing roles primarily as an Intelligence Officer. Various postings at the strategic level saw her oversee international intelligence analysis within a multi-national security agency framework, including a 7-month deployment in Iraq with the Overwatch Battlegroup West – 2. In her final posting within Army, Sarah worked on policies and initiatives to improve gender equality and workplace culture in order increase retention and recruitment of women in the Australian Army. In 2015, Sarah was medically retired from the Army which led to a challenging period of healing and personal growth. Sarah found sport to reinvent herself post military and has since competed on international sporting stages, including Invictus Games and World Championship events for Ironman, Cycling and Triathlon. Sarah has also completed Yoga Teacher training and regularly brings trauma informed Yoga to other veterans through her collaboration with Frontline Yoga Inc. Sarah is Chair of the Young Veterans Committee for the Returned Services League (RSL) NSW and holds the Contemporary Veteran position for the Department of Defence and Veterans Affairs Human Research Ethics Committee (DDVA HREC). The rest of Sarah’s time is taken up with looking after her sons George (10) and David (8), volunteer coaching for her local junior rugby and Little Athletics clubs, President of the Yass Valley Triathlon Club and holds a part-time job with Strategic Development Group, who specialise in programs that improve gender equality and women’s leadership developing countries.

Kym McCarthy is an experienced and dynamic lawyer passionate about sustainability, climate change and supporting the veteran community. Kym has served for over 20 years in the Australian Army as a soldier, General Service Officer, and currently as a Legal Officer. Her operational experience includes being an embedded Legal Officer with the main battle group in Afghanistan (2012) and with Special Forces in Iraq (2014-2015). She was also selected for an internship with the United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate in New York (2014). More recently Kym has been working in the ASX space, specialising in sustainability. Now the founder of ‘Audacieux Legal & Consulting’, Kym combines her legal expertise with a bold vision for a more sustainable future. She is also deeply passionate about supporting women—particularly women veterans—to have their voices heard, their experiences respected and their contributions recognised. 

Miquela Riley is a strategy and organisational improvement specialist and Navy veteran. Miquela served in the Royal Australian Navy for 13 years as a Navigator and continues her service through the Navy reserves. Some of Miquela’s career highlights include circumnavigating the world as the Navigator of Sail Training Ship Young Endeavour, and a 12-month deployment to the Middle East as part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO).

Since leaving the Navy in 2019, Miquela has worked across a variety of industries and sectors, including construction, management consulting and mining. Miquela has previously sought public office as a candidate in the 2021 WA state election and she maintains a keen interest in politics and public policy.  

Miquela holds a Bachelor of Business and two master’s degrees in Project Management and Business. She has previously been the Partnership Manager of the National Association of Women In Construction (NAWIC), building corporate partnerships to advance the representation of women in the construction industry. Currently, Miquela works as a Program Manager at Rio Tinto and is the Vice-President and a Non-Executive Director of the Returned and Services League of WA (RSL WA), where she is focussed on increasing the representation of women veterans across the organisation and ensuring that the services and support provided meet the needs of servicewomen. Miquela is a keynote speaker for a range of organisations, speaking about leadership, resilience and high performing teams.