Dr Katrina Clifford appointed Program Manager of The Greenhouse
– 3 Aug 2022
ADM is delighted to announce that Dr Katrina Clifford has been appointed Program Manager of The Greenhouse.
The Greenhouse is an exciting new ADM initiative designed to support Christian women across Australia through a range of training masterclasses and networks (Greenhouse Guilds) for women in different industries, ministries and life-stages. The Greenhouse will exist both online as a digital community – reaching out into regional areas and across Australia – as well as hosting in-person events in our Sydney office.
In alignment with ADM’s new Strategic Plan, the vision of The Greenhouse is to see ‘Every woman equipped and engaged in serving Christ in the Church, the community and the world’.
Acting CEO of ADM Maryanne Davis said, “The Greenhouse is a key program in how ADM will pursue its new strategic plan over the next five years, bringing Christian women together so that they can support each other to grow and take the gospel out into the many and varied contexts in which they live, work, and serve.” She continued, “through the strategic plan consultation period, ADM heard over and again from Christian who attended the Listening Forums that community and gathering with other Christian women in their area was something they wanted. They were often asking if ADM could coordinate more of this! So, we listened. These reflections from Christian women on the importance of networks gave birth to the idea of The Greenhouse.”
As she begins her new role, Katrina will be meeting with Christian women and continuing to listen to what they need as she seeks to grow The Greenhouse. She’ll be asking women about the supports they most often provide to other women, and about the support they need right now to share the gospel in their current context and life-stage.
Katrina has been a follower of Jesus since she was a child, and was raised in a Christian family. Prior to her new role at ADM, Katrina was the Dean of Academics at Robert Menzies College (RMC), a key role in the college that combines pastoral care, strategic thinking, and academic and professional support and development. Katrina is married to Tim, and they have three children.
“What I love about The Greenhouse is that it takes investing in women seriously and practically – how can we love and support Christian women in ways that actually do support them, so that they can be emboldened to live out their gifts and their calling, in the church and in the world?” — Katrina
“I also love new things, and the opportunity to dream big and think strategically and then put things in place to make amazing things happen, so the idea of coming into this at its earliest stages, shaping it and watching it grow, was really appealing. And I love ADM, and its long history of raising up women and sending them out, so I was keen to join the team.”
Katrina has always been passionate about raising up women and hearing women’s voices. Her PhD focused on largely overlooked women writers of the 18th century, and the calls they made for greater visibility and equality within their families and broader society. At RMC, she has been a passionate advocate for providing better training and support for female student leaders, a passion that led her to be appointed a 2022 ADM Senior Fellow, where she worked on developing a training program that focuses on empowering and supporting young women as they move into positions of leadership.
Katrina is excited by the potential of The Greenhouse to raise up and support Christian women all over Australia, and to better equip them to live for Christ and bring the gospel to bear in their communities. She says, “I’m looking forward to meeting and chatting with women from different places and backgrounds, to hear from them what sort of support needs they have, and then thinking carefully and strategically about how we can start to meet those needs. I’m looking forward to watching women invest in each other, raise each other up, and support each other. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing The Greenhouse go from being an idea to a reality, that makes a difference in the lives of real women. And I’m looking forward to seeing what God does with our efforts. If we do this well, God willing, The Greenhouse has the potential to impact not just women today, but future generations of Christian men and women too.”
In looking ahead to the next few months, Katrina says, “I’d love people to pray for me that I maintain my excitement and enthusiasm as we get into the nuts and bolts of setting up this new program. Pray that we would make good decisions about what types of support structures we set up, and how we do that. And pray that many, many women across Australia will be drawn into The Greenhouse community and will be keen to connect with us and with other women. Pray that they will see its ministry potential and be keen to spend some of their limited time and energy being part of building it with us.”
“Most of all, pray that God will be blessing this work, because we know that we can do our part of the work, but he’s the one who gives the growth.” — Katrina
Interested in meeting with Katrina for a coffee or Zoom – sharing your thoughts and finding out more about The Greenhouse? Send her an email at hello@thegreenhouse.digital