Canberra journalist and maternal health advocate Emma Macdonald has received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to journalism and women in the Queen's Birthday 2022 Honours List.
A born-and-bred Canberran, she spent 23 years working as a reporter for The Canberra Times before joining HerCanberra, in 2016, where she is now associate editor.
Ms Macdonald also helped to found the maternal health charity Send Hope Not Flowers, which she still helps to run on an entirely voluntary basis.
She has also been the convener of the Canberra chapter of Women in Media since 2015, mentoring young women in the profession and bringing many high-profile women to speak at the National Press Club, including abuse survivor Grace Tame.
Ms Macdonald was also the founder and continues to be a judge of the Caroline Jones AO Women in Media Young Rural/Regional Journalists' Award. The award was named in honour of Caroline Jones, the pioneering journalist who died last month and who was a close friend to Macdonald.
A two-time Walkley Award winner, Macdonald did much groundbreaking work during her years on The Canberra Times, holding governments to account. She counts her expose on the Mr Fluffy scandal as among her most significant stories.
The mother-of-two was humbled to receive the OAM.
"Half of me feels not worthy and the other half feels really proud because I do know how many 4am nights I've put in. How much running around and organisation it takes to put on a press club event. How many hours it takes to judge the Caroline Jones Award," she said.
"I do work really hard and I feel proud that this award recognises the value of the voluntary work I do for Send Hope and Women in Media - both of which I am so passionate about.
"So it feels overwhelmingly exciting and I'm thrilled."
Growing up in government housing in Dickson, attending public schools, the only child of a single mother, Ms Macdonald said her career was proof of the opportunities available in Canberra.
"To get a great education, to meet all these people, to have the career that you love, I feel really lucky to have been born in this city," she said.
Send Hope Not Flowers has raised more than $1 million since it was formed in 2010, helping to fund maternal health projects around the world. It works by supporters sending a card to a new mother on the birth of their child or on a significant day such as Mother's Day which is a donation in their name to projects working to reduce the risk of mothers dying in childbirth in the developing world.
"It is a small charity all things considered, but it really doesn't cost much to save a life," Ms Macdonald said.
"We were always about small, targeted projects and we never knew we'd have such success. We've expanded and this year we approved another partnership in Sierra Leone, so we're now in nine countries, which is amazing."
The charity work had been life-changing for her as well.
"As a journalist, you observe and chronicle so many things, and this was about actually going, 'I want to do something'. It was a different way for me to start living my life, I think, when that happened," she said.
Ms Macdonald said she loved making a contribution to the life of the city during her time in with The Canberra Times and recognised how important it was to have a mentor in her early career, thanks to the generosity of then colleague Verona Burgess.
"She was the education editor when I was the junior before I moved up to take it over myself when she became the public sector editor. She just devoted so much of her time and energy to supporting me when I really had no idea and was fresh out of uni. She just made it feel I could conquer anything because I had someone behind me supporting me and championing me at the conference table," she said.
"And that's why I am so passionate about Women in Media supporting women in journalism, especially young women working in rural and regional Australia."
Married to Paul Chamberlin with whom she has two children, Thomas, 16, and Imogen, 12, Ms Macdonald said her late mother Valerie would be proud of all her achievements.
"My mum would be beside herself, she really would, but also not surprised. She always told me I could do whatever I wanted," she said.
Her mother had also shown her how she could work and care for a family and achieve great things in the community.
"She just never stopped and I think that's been passed down in my DNA," she said.
"I'm not going to lie, there are times when I am so tired and so overburdened that I think I can't go on at the same pace, but somehow you find it in you. I would like to have a little bit less work on my plate but I also know the more I do, the more energy I have."
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