How I Got Here: CEO of Women’s Health Matters, Sarah Ahmed
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Admit it, we’ve all been there – stalking social media and LinkedIn profiles, trying desperately to figure out how the hell someone got their dream job.
It seems impossible, and yet there they are, living out your career fantasy (minus the itchy business suit). It might seem hard to believe, but once upon a time, they were also fantasising about their future career, and with some hard work, they made it.
Welcome to How I Got Here, HerCanberra’s series that reveals everything you want to know about the secrets of career success. This week, we sit down with Sarah Ahmed, the newly appointed CEO of Women’s Health Matters, to talk leadership, vulnerability, and why carving your own path is always better than following a blueprint.
Existential crisis time: Who are you and what do you do?
Sarah Ahmed – mum of two, sister, daughter, friend, and CEO of Women’s Health Matters. By day I am neck-deep in gender equity and governance papers; by night you’ll find me three episodes deep into a trashy reality show with a podcast queue I’ll never actually clear.
Let’s go back to when you were a kid, have you always dreamed of working in this industry?
Not even close. I wanted to be an employment lawyer, or maybe a defence attorney. Clearly the “help people” gene was there early; I just thought it came with a wig and a courtroom. Life took the scenic route instead, and I have ended up somewhere better, working directly with people, for causes I actually care about.
Tell us about when you were first starting out, what set a fire in your belly to get here and how did you do it?
Early on, I worked for a First Nations organisation in the Northern Territory, and it rewired me. Seeing the scale of inequity First Nations communities carry, and how little of it is accidental, is what set the fire. I decided then that my career would be in service of underprivileged communities, and that hasn’t changed since.
Recall a time when you wanted to chuck it all in; what did you tell yourself when it got too hard?
Honestly, never really had a “chuck it all in” moment. There’s frustration, and the odd short, sharp bout of despair, but never a genuine “I am out.” The work is too rewarding for that. What gets me through the hard patches is having a solid crew of peers, friends, and mentors around me, people who will tell you the truth and then buy you a coffee.
What was your biggest break?
I have had my fair share of lucky breaks, but the big one was landing my first CEO role at Hepatitis ACT. The board took a genuine leap of faith. I’d never been a CEO before, and they hired me at a genuinely precarious time for the organisation. That role rewired how I think about leadership. Turns out vulnerability isn’t the opposite of strength. It’s a leadership tool if you are brave enough to use it.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“Just because you feel useless doesn’t mean you are worthless.” My ten-year-old son said that to me. He caught me at a low point, on the phone to a friend, freshly diagnosed with a chronic illness, and telling her I felt like I was failing at every aspect of life. Out of the mouths of babes.
What is it about your industry that you love and what makes you want to pull your hair out?
The sense of community and camaraderie. This sector runs on people who genuinely show up for each other. What makes me want to scream into a pillow is that we are still fighting for basics: genuine gender equity in health and wellbeing isn’t remotely achieved yet. Women are still struggling to access gender-informed, inclusive healthcare and reliable information to make good decisions about their own bodies. In 2026. It’s maddening how far we still have to go.
Tell us how you ‘stay in the know’, what media do you consume?
I have mostly stopped watching the news. I genuinely don’t think humans are wired to consume the sheer volume of information we are exposed to these days. Real-time news, reels, podcasts 24/7, isn’t good for our brains, and there’s so much grief in the world right now that the repetitive nature of the reporting isn’t doing anyone’s mental health any favours. Staying informed matters, but I think we all need to get better at consuming it in moderation. I’d rather be useful than doom-scroll into paralysis.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I am not really a beyond-three-years planner. But I know, with total certainty, that whatever I am doing will still involve helping people and community in some form. The job title might change, but the purpose won’t.
Why should people follow in your footsteps?
They shouldn’t. I mean that as encouragement, not a brush-off. There’s real beauty in everyone carving their own path. If I’d stuck to the one I thought I was meant to follow – lawyer, courtroom, the whole plan – I wouldn’t be anywhere near here. Life has a funny way of turning out better than you expected when you follow what you are actually passionate about instead of what you think you are supposed to do.
What advice would you give your past self?
Stop worrying about what other people think, and put that energy into self-compassion, growth, and actually being present in your own life.
