Women in Digital names finalists for 2026 national awards

Women in Digital has named the finalists for its 2026 national awards, with a shortlist spanning 20 categories across Australia.

The finalists were selected from a record number of completed nominations, with contenders from healthcare, banking, higher education, research and major technology companies.

Now in its ninth year, the awards programme recognises women, non-binary people and allies working across Australia's digital and technology sectors. The 2026 field reflects the breadth of roles shaping industries through technology, from clinical research and cyber training to university systems and banking operations.

Among those shortlisted is Alice Footer, Founder of FromBeyond.co, a finalist in the Rising Star of the Year category. Footer, 17, founded a digital legacy video platform after seeing her grandmother's stories begin to fade, building it while balancing school, coaching work and a restaurant job.

Daisy Wong, Security Awareness and Training Manager at Medibank, is a finalist in the Champion of Change category. Born with spina bifida and a wheelchair user, Wong faced two redundancies before turning 30 and was told she was not "technical enough" while pursuing a career in the sector.

Hannah Latham, Director of Digital Transformation and Deputy Chief Information and Digital Officer at Macquarie University, was shortlisted for Digital Transformation Leader of the Year. She is leading what the organisation describes as the largest and most complex technology initiative in the university's history, focused on how students engage with the institution from first enquiry to graduation and alumni contact.

Healthcare and artificial intelligence are also represented by Associate Professor Helen Frazer, a finalist in the AI Leader of the Year category. Frazer, a Radiologist, Breast Cancer Clinician and AI Researcher at St Vincent's Healthcare Australia and BRAIx Health, has spent more than 25 years leading breast screening services across three Australian states.

Her work aims to address shortcomings in age-based breast screening models, which can miss cancers and lead to unnecessary recalls.

In financial services, Miranda Ratajski, Chief Information Officer, Group Business Units at Westpac, was shortlisted for Executive Leader of the Year. She leads technology strategy and delivery across HR, finance, risk, operations, property, procurement and customer solutions, drawing on more than three decades of experience in finance, banking, telecommunications and the federal government.

Sarah Barnbrook, Founder and CEO of Away From Keyboard Inc., is a finalist in the Global Impact Excellence category. Barnbrook self-funded her charity to build Alt-TAB, a free AI governance screening tool that checks systems against 35 governance frameworks before deployment, including child safety and gender-based violence safeguards.

Broad field

The wider awards programme includes categories for allyship, business support, cloud and infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, digital experience, growth, Indigenous leadership, IT, product development, the public sector, software engineering and technical leadership.

Several categories are backed by corporate sponsors, including the National AI Centre, Cisco, Sekuro, Shell Energy Australia, The Lottery Corporation, Datacom and Auto&General.

The awards are part of Women in Digital's broader work as a national organisation founded in Brisbane in 2014. It says it reaches more than 15,000 subscribers in Australia through events, research, education programmes, awards and corporate partnerships.

The group works with government, corporate and community organisations to help build a digital and technology workforce that reflects the society it serves.

Commenting on this year's finalists, Holly Hunt, Founder and CEO of Women in Digital, highlighted the visibility of women working on systems that affect everyday life. "Every year the calibre of our finalists reminds us why this community exists. These are the women building the technology that shapes how Australians bank, manage their health, stay safe online and experience their university, and it's time more of the country knew their names."