Eden's story

Before joining Starlight, I was completing my PhD in childhood cancer and working as a Behavioural Scientist at UNSW Sydney.

I’ve always wanted to work in a field that helped those most vulnerable and have always gravitated towards child wellbeing and health. I remember competing in an essay competition in primary school about the psychosocial impact of spina bifida for a young person, and volunteering with a family who had three children with cerebral palsy. With these early life experiences, it makes sense that I ended up in the field I’m in!

I joined Starlight as a contractor in 2016 while completing my PhD. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the organisation. I felt that Starlight Programs and overarching vision aligned with my personal values. Having the opportunity to work with wonderful people and be a part of such a positive culture has been a massive bonus. After two years as a contractor, I officially joined Starlight as their Research and Evaluation manager in 2019. I have really enjoyed my close working relationship with my manager — I feel supported to really use my creativity and academic skills to make an impact for seriously ill children and their families.

It has also been great to be able to incorporate the creative skills I’ve developed in my role at Starlight into my academic role at UNSW.

For me, Starlight is a place where I can do what I love, engage in tasks that are align with my character strengths and skills, and contribute to something bigger than myself. I think being able to achieve all those needs in one role is rare, and likely the reason I have such high satisfaction in my role.

A lot of my work as Research & Evaluation Manager involves designing and evaluating our core programs to ensure we’re hitting the mark. I’ve enjoyed working with different teams and learning from them about how they approach evaluation. I do a lot of writing in my role — which I love — and have been able to practice writing for a non-academic reader. I also collaborate with external researchers from across Australia to contribute to broader research projects that align with Starlight’s mission.

I recently took four months of leave to undertake my Fulbright Scholarship at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. That was an incredible opportunity to learn more about how to improve the lives of seriously ill children, and meet like-minded individuals committed to making a difference in the world.