Meet our People – Holly Kovac
Find out more about our staff, their roles, and what their day to day looks like!
What was your path into evaluation and ARTD?
In 2017 I applied for ARTD’s Indigenous Internship – which I got based on the research degree I was doing at the time (Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience). At this point in my life, I was questioning my career and transferred into a Bachelor of Nursing.
When I went to Yirrkala in the NT as part of my nursing placement, I had the realisation that I wanted to work closer with community in the policy space in order to make systemic change. This made me deviate from my nursing degree and move into the policy development and program design space.
Can you sum up your role as a Consultant in one sentence?
In ARTD’s Aboriginal Projects and Partnerships Portfolio, we work closely with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to develop their data collection skills, as well as creating tools and program models that help demonstrate their impact.
What was the best opportunity/ your proudest work moment since starting at ARTD?
My proudest moment so far at ARTD was when my team won the 2019 AES Indigenous Evaluation Award for Excellence for our work with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations on the pilot of the Aboriginal Evidence Building Partnership – it was one of the first big projects I worked on at ARTD and where I really developed my interest in capacity building.
Another opportunity I am proud of was the chance to speak to the Young Indigenous Women’s STEM Academy to share my personal story of my STEM journey, in research.
What is your favourite thing about working at ARTD?
I get to work with a variety of people. At ARTD, we have a really supportive working environment where we collaborate as teams closely on projects which has given me loads of opportunities to grow professionally. I also get to experience this through working with our clients where I get the opportunity to work closely with Aboriginal communities and fulfill my passion.
What’s something your clients may not know about you?
I represent the University of Sydney through their AFL women’s team, and I hope to play AFLW one day!
