Meet Louise
Author: Louise Evans
During a diverse 30-year career Louise Evans has worked around Australia and around the world as a journalist, foreign correspondent, editor and media executive. She has worked for Australian Associated Press (six years), The Sydney Morning Herald (eight years) and The Australian (11 years), in Australia, China and the UK. Louise is a women in sport’s media pioneer, the Founding Editor of AAP FactCheck, the Creator of #WISPAA – Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and Touring Exhibition and a Life Member and former director and mentor at Women Sport Australia (seven years).
In 2015 Louise received an Edna Ryan Sport Award for promoting the engagement and recognition of women in sport.
In 2017 Louise received an Appreciation Award from the South Korean government for her “contribution to Korean War Veteran Affairs and for deepening the relationship between Korea and Australia”.
In 2018 Louise was invited to Seoul by the South Korean government to speak at official ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of peace on the peninsula. The ceremony also featured a reenactment of Passage to Pusan, played by Korean actors.
Over the 2018-2019 summer Louise created and launched #WISPAA – the Women in Sport Photo Action Awards – to showcase the skill, strength and athleticism of Australia’s sportswomen in action. #WISPAA evolved into a national touring exhibition. Louise created, launched and managed the #WISPAA project in her own time – which amounted to more than four-months, full-time volunteer work from November 2018 to April 2020. The touring #WISPAA exhibition was displayed at 28 corporate, retail, university and government sites in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia from June 2019 – April 2020. Louise also worked with the creative team at Melbourne’s Federation Square to create a six-minute video featuring the images of the 30 WISPAA finalists. The video played on Fed Square’s Giant Outdoor Screens from Oct 24, 2019 – infinity.
In 2019 Louise’s contribution to the media and sport was recognised with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Read about her OAM award here. In 2019, Louise was also named in the Australian Financial Review’s Top 100 Women of Influence for her contribution to the arts, culture and sport.
In 2020 Louise won the NSW Government Community Service Award and a NSW Volunteer of the Year Award for her advocacy work with Women Sport Australia and for creating and launching the Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and national touring exhibition – #WISPAA. She was also made a Life Member of Women Sport Australia.
©Louise Evans 2015. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, introduced into a retrieval system, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including without limitation photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
