Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury Named 2026 Wollongong Local Woman of the Year for Championing Women Founders
She built an entrepreneurial ecosystem that supported over 500 companies, created more than 1,100 jobs, and added over half a billion dollars to the local economy — and on 5 March 2026, NSW gave Tamantha Stutchbury the recognition her work has long deserved. University of Wollongong iAccelerate Director Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury was named the 2026 Wollongong Local Woman of the Year by Member for Wollongong, Mr Paul Scully MP, during NSW Women’s Week. The awards celebrate visionary thinkers, everyday heroes, social advocates, and trailblazing role models who make a meaningful difference in their communities, and Dr. Stutchbury was nominated for her enduring commitment to supporting the next generation of female innovators and leaders. For anyone who has watched her reshape what advocating for women entrepreneurs actually looks like at a regional level, the award feels both fitting and long overdue. Tamantha Stutchbury didn’t just open doors for female founders — she built entirely new entranceways.
From Lab Bench to Launch Pad: The Rise of Tamantha Stutchbury
Science is where it all began. The first in her family to attend university, she enrolled in a Bachelor of Medicinal Chemistry (Honours) where she joined a small but passionate cohort of like-minded students, before beginning a PhD. As a PhD student and post-doctoral researcher in biochemistry, Tamantha Stutchbury researched and developed new chemotherapy drugs in an environment of mostly men. That experience of being one of the very few women in the room didn’t diminish her drive. It lit a fire that’s still burning today.
Her career unfolded through multiple UOW roles: researcher, lecturer, program director. Each position deepened her understanding of how institutions either amplify underrepresented voices or quietly shut them out. More than 30 years later, Tamantha Stutchbury still calls Wollongong home, having worked at UOW in multiple roles and now serving as Director of iAccelerate, the University’s start-up hub. From that platform, she began reimagining what female entrepreneur support Illawarra-wide could genuinely look like — not as an afterthought, but as the entire point.
Tamantha Stutchbury was also chosen to take part in the prestigious global leadership initiative Homeward Bound, a program that selects women in STEMM as high achievers in their careers while creating opportunities for others. That global experience gave her both perspective and conviction: the systemic challenges facing women in innovation are universal, and they demand deliberate local action.
What iAccelerate Does — and Why Tamantha Stutchbury’s Leadership Changes Everything
iAccelerate is the University of Wollongong’s flagship innovation and entrepreneurship hub, with a mission to cultivate equitable, diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems by supporting founders from all walks of life in STEM, regional Australia, social enterprise and beyond. It’s also, notably, Australia’s largest and longest-running university-backed startup accelerator. Think of it as a launchpad built specifically to dismantle the structural barriers that stop great ideas from reaching the market.
Under Tamantha Stutchbury’s leadership, the numbers have been hard to ignore. The program has supported over 500 companies, created more than 1,100 local jobs, and contributed nearly half a billion dollars to the Illawarra economy. These aren’t vanity metrics — they represent real businesses, real livelihoods, and a community actively rewriting its economic story. Wollongong business mentorship for women sits at the core of this achievement, delivered not as a niche initiative but as operational policy.
Here’s what makes iAccelerate genuinely different from the industry norm:
- Female founder representation: Globally, only 20% of founders are female, but at iAccelerate approximately 50% of founders are female. In 2024, 52% of iAccelerate-supported companies had at least one female founder — consistently doubling the industry benchmark year after year.
- First Nations and diverse communities: In 2024, iAccelerate’s Impact Report shows 24 First Nations entrepreneurs and 48 regional entrepreneurs were supported through regional workshops and the Activate program.
- Social enterprise stream: A dedicated 14-week pre-accelerator focused on “business for good,” co-designed by social enterprise leaders with wraparound support, has seen 82% of participants identify as female.
Tamantha Stutchbury and the LIFT Program: Cutting the Root of Inequality
One of the most tangible expressions of Tamantha Stutchbury’s vision is the LIFT (Lift as You Climb) scholarship program. The University of Wollongong was successful in securing $997,891 for its program LIFT, led by iAccelerate Director Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury and Professor Danielle Skropeta from the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, through the Australian Government’s Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) grant program. This program tackles a problem hiding in plain sight for decades.
Consider the data. According to the 2022 STEM Equity Monitor prepared by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, women only make up 36% of enrolments in university STEM courses and comprise only 27% of the workforce across all STEM industries. Only 23% of senior management and 8% of CEOs in STEM-qualified industries are women. These figures aren’t just disappointing — they reflect compounding structural blockades that push female talent out of the pipeline before it ever reaches the top.
LIFT takes aim at those blockades directly. Since 2023, 66 female founders have received LIFT scholarships, 34 of whom are PhD students in STEM disciplines — helping bridge research with real-world innovation. The program is built on a transformative philosophy: rather than parachuting individuals into opportunity, it creates durable networks of mentorship, peer support, and skill development that compound over time.
UOW iAccelerate women in STEM don’t just receive financial scholarships. The program provides the skills to run an idea or start-up through various stages of customer development, customer validation, prototyping, and pitch training, while participants also gain access to the iAccelerate co-working space, community, and a six-month membership to the UOW Makerspace. It’s the kind of wraparound support that turns isolated ambition into sustainable entrepreneurial confidence.
Advocating for Women Entrepreneurs: Confronting the Global VC Funding Gap
Tamantha Stutchbury’s work is anchored in a global reality that demands urgency. Analysis of global venture capital deployment shows that of the $289 billion invested globally in 2024, just 2.3% — $6.7 billion — went to female-only founding teams, while 83.6% went to all-male founding teams. At current rates of improvement, it would take until approximately 2065 to reach gender parity in venture capital allocation. That’s not a slow lane. That’s a dead end.
The 30-year average of all-female founders’ share of VC funding is just 2.4%, and the gender gap in venture capital leads to major disparities across the tech sector and beyond, given that venture capitalists play a critical gatekeeping role in deciding whose ideas get a chance to shape the modern economy. Advocating for women entrepreneurs isn’t a peripheral concern for Tamantha Stutchbury — it’s the reason she gets out of bed.
Dr. Stutchbury put it plainly: “We’re changing the narrative of what makes a successful entrepreneur. It’s not always the loudest voice in the room. With only around two per cent of global venture capital going to women-led startups, too many great ideas still fall through the cracks simply because they look or sound different.” Regional innovation and female leaders like those she mentors bring different — often better — solutions precisely because they approach problems from angles the mainstream hasn’t considered.
In 2025, iAccelerate was awarded the Female Entrepreneurship Empowerment Award at the ACEEU Global Triple E Awards, and also won the People’s Choice Award in the same category, recognising global leadership in inclusive entrepreneurship. That recognition validates what the Illawarra already knew. You can explore iAccelerate’s female founders program directly to see the model in action.
The RISE Program: Regional Innovation and Female Leaders Beyond the City
The Illawarra is just the starting point. The iAccelerate RISE program supports new and existing regional businesses with practical workshops, online learning, and a network of experts to help them grow and scale. Delivered across the NSW South Coast, Bega Valley, Southern Highlands, and beyond, RISE takes Wollongong business mentorship for women into communities that metropolitan startup ecosystems consistently overlook.
The outcomes speak clearly. In its first year, RISE supported 90 entrepreneurs in creating 300 new jobs, with 63% led by female founders. Over the past five years, 30 women-led regional businesses have participated in the RISE program, which helps to rebuild and strengthen communities through entrepreneurship following crises such as the Black Summer bushfires. Regional innovation and female leaders powered by RISE don’t just generate employment — they generate belief that regional Australia belongs at the centre of the innovation conversation.
Tamantha Stutchbury and the 2026 Wollongong Local Woman of the Year: What This Honour Really Means
The NSW Local Women of the Year Awards were presented alongside the NSW Women of the Year award celebration in Women’s Week on Thursday, 5 March 2026. In presenting the award, the sentiment from Wollongong’s community was clear: Dr. Stutchbury understands that when women succeed, the whole community benefits, and her dedication to breaking down barriers and expanding access to opportunity is shaping a stronger, fairer local economy.
Through her work at iAccelerate and the LIFT project, Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury has helped build not just successful startups, but confidence, capability, and pathways for women in STEM. The Wollongong Local Woman of the Year recognition isn’t merely honouring past achievement — it validates a model of leadership that prioritises access, sustainability, and inclusion over optics. Female entrepreneur support Illawarra-style, under Tamantha Stutchbury’s watch, means nobody gets left behind. Not First Nations women, not refugee women, not women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. The program is open to all women, with a special emphasis on those from diverse communities, including Indigenous women, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and women from refugee backgrounds.
What’s Next: A Legacy Still in Motion
The 2026 Wollongong Local Woman of the Year recognition is a milestone, not a finish line. The LIFT program continues to scale. UOW iAccelerate women in STEM are receiving more structured pathways than ever before. Global interest in inclusive entrepreneurship is accelerating. And Tamantha Stutchbury is nowhere near done.
For aspiring female founders in the Illawarra and across regional Australia, the infrastructure exists, the mentorship is available, and Tamantha Stutchbury has spent years making sure the door swings wide. Female entrepreneur support Illawarra-wide has never been more accessible — or more urgent, given the funding gaps that still persist globally.
Ready to take the leap? Visit iaccelerate.com.au/programs/supporting-female-entrepreneurs to explore scholarships, programs, and community support designed to turn your idea into something real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury?
Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury is the Director of iAccelerate at the University of Wollongong — Australia’s largest and longest-running university-backed startup accelerator. A first-generation university graduate with a PhD in biochemistry from UOW, she has built a career championing inclusive entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on women founders and underrepresented communities across the Illawarra and regional NSW.
Why was Tamantha Stutchbury named the 2026 Wollongong Local Woman of the Year?
She received the award for her sustained, measurable impact in supporting women founders, driving regional innovation, and shaping a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem through iAccelerate. Under her direction, the program has supported over 500 companies, created more than 1,100 local jobs, and generated nearly half a billion dollars in economic contribution — while consistently achieving female founder participation rates that double industry norms.
What is iAccelerate and how does it support founders?
iAccelerate is the University of Wollongong’s flagship innovation and entrepreneurship hub, providing startup support across education, mentorship, co-working space, funding access, and community programs. It runs multiple streams including the Activate pre-accelerator, the LIFT scholarship program for women in STEM, the RISE initiative for regional entrepreneurs, and a dedicated social enterprise stream.
What is the LIFT program and how does it help women founders?
LIFT (Lift as You Climb) is a UOW initiative co-led by Tamantha Stutchbury that secured nearly $1 million in Australian Government WISE grant funding. Since launching in 2023, it has provided scholarships, mentorship, networking, and co-working access to 66 female founders — 34 of whom are PhD students in STEM disciplines — directly bridging academic research and real-world entrepreneurship.
How does iAccelerate’s female founder rate compare to industry averages?
Globally, only around 20% of startup founders are women. At iAccelerate, approximately 50% of supported companies have at least one female founder — a benchmark the program has maintained consistently and one that doubles the national and international industry average for innovation ecosystems.
Has iAccelerate received international recognition for its work with women founders?
Yes. In 2025, iAccelerate won both the Female Entrepreneurship Empowerment Award and the People’s Choice Award at the ACEEU Global Triple E Awards, one of the most prestigious honours for entrepreneurial and engaged universities worldwide.
How can women in regional NSW access iAccelerate’s programs?
Women can apply directly via the iAccelerate website at iaccelerate.com.au. The RISE program specifically supports regional entrepreneurs across NSW, while the Female Founders Program and LIFT scholarships serve women from all backgrounds — with explicit outreach to Indigenous women, culturally diverse women, and women from refugee communities. Programs include workshops, pitch training, co-working space, mentorship, and peer networking.
