As recipient of the Anstice MBA Scholarship for Community Leadership at the University of Sydney Business School, Lucy Clynes is strengthening the way she leads national health advocacy, policy and systems change.
Lucy Clynes, Chief Executive Officer of Hepatitis Australia, is the recipient of the Anstice MBA Scholarship for Community Leadership at the University of Sydney Business School. The scholarship, valued at over $70,000, covers a maximum 4 years of the tuition fees for enrolment in the part-time MBA.
For Lucy, the scholarship recognised the kind of leadership often required in community and public-interest sectors: strategic, resourceful and deeply accountable to the people affected by policy decisions.
“The scholarship resonated because not-for-profit leaders have to be quite entrepreneurial in the way we approach innovation in a tricky funding environment and this scholarship really supports that development.”
Lucy’s commitment to social justice began early. Not long after finishing school, she joined a local Member of Parliament’s office, where she saw how government decisions shaped daily life.
“Sometimes it was working to help save the local train line from being cancelled, sometimes it was helping someone get their screen door fixed by the Department of Housing.”
Those experiences shaped her understanding of community mobilisation and systems change, a thread that has continued through her work in government, health and medical research advocacy, and now national community health leadership.
The scholarship resonated because not-for-profit leaders have to be quite entrepreneurial in the way we approach innovation in a tricky funding environment and this scholarship really supports that development
Lucy Clynes
At Hepatitis Australia, Lucy represents a national network of community hepatitis organisations supporting people living with viral hepatitis. She is conscious that, when speaking in national forums, she is not only representing the organisation, but also the interests of people and communities who are not always present in decision-making rooms.
That responsibility is complex. Lucy’s work often sits beyond public visibility, in the slow, deliberate work of relationship building, strategy and policy reform.
“The relationship building and the changes in strategy and the incremental policy changes sometimes feel invisible but those invisible things have real impact.”
For Lucy, leadership in this context means recognising that policy evidence and community experience are not opposing forces.
“Lived experience is evidence.”
It also means knowing when to act. While her legal and policy background taught her the importance of caution, not-for-profit leadership has required a different kind of judgement.
“Sometimes you just have to press go!”
The scholarship and MBA come at a point when Lucy is already operating nationally, but still asking how leadership can be strengthened, tested and better applied in service of others.
For senior professionals in community, health or public service considering their own next step, Lucy’s reflection is direct.
“How much do you really want to be responsible?”
Through the Anstice MBA Scholarship for Community Leadership, the University of Sydney Business School is supporting leaders like Lucy to extend their impact across the sectors and communities they serve.