Fred Hollows Foundation Board Member Katrina Fanning was named ACT Australian of the Year.

Fanning is a women’s rugby league pioneer, both as a player and as manager of the Indigenous Women’s All Stars team, Chairperson of the Australian Rugby League Indigenous Council, and President of the Canberra and Australian Women’s Rugby League Associations.

Fanning joined The Fred Hollows Foundation Board earlier this year.

“We are delighted to see Katrina receive this tremendous honour,” Foundation CEO Ian Wishart said “She has decades of community service and is a leading voice for Indigenous Australians both in the ACT and around Australia. It is fitting Fanning will be considered for the Australian of the Year award 30 years after Fred Hollows was given the honour.”

As well as her position on the Fred Hollows Board, Fanning has held senior government roles with Centrelink, Aboriginal Hostels and the Department of Education, and Employment and Workplace Relations.

She is also Director of Coolamon Advisors, an Indigenous majority-owned and managed consultancy. She firmly believes that the ACT can lead the way nationally for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people outcomes, in creating and leading their own solutions.

In 2014, she was named Canberra Woman of the Year, and ACT NAIDOC Person of the Year.