ELENA Campbell was among 24 women inducted into the 2025 Victorian Honour Roll of Women. The Minister for Women, Natalie Hutchins, announced the new inductees at a ceremony at the Arts Centre Melbourne on Tuesday, September 2.
The Honour Roll recognises outstanding Victorian women whose leadership and achievements make a lasting difference to the community. The late Hon Joan Kirner AC, Victoria’s first female Premier, created the Honour Roll to formally acknowledge women for their achievements and to encourage others to follow in their footsteps.
“The Honour Roll is proof that leadership takes many forms – from the classroom to the courtroom, from healthcare to community organising. It’s hard to be what you can’t see.
“Every one of these women has made Victoria a better, fairer place. They’ve changed lives, inspired others and strengthened our state in ways that will last for generations.”
This year’s inductees include Elena Campbell. Elena is committed to law reform, access to justice and social justice in general. Her career has a particular focus on gendered violence and the rights of women and vulnerable groups.
Her expertise includes therapeutic justice, equal opportunity and human rights, and the prevention and elimination of violence against women and children. Elena is co-founder and Associate Director of
Research, Advocacy and Policy at RMIT University’s Centre for Innovative Justice.
Elena oversees research on family violence and how trauma can push women and children into contact with the criminal justice system. Her work has also looked at young people’s use of violence at home.
Elena was a consultant to the Australian Human Rights Commission (2011 - 2013) and adviser to Victoria’s Attorney-General (2000-2010), and she led projects to support the implementation of recommendations from Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence.
Elena, like many women in public life, has pursued this work with fierce determination while raising four children and supporting her family’s active community life in their home on the Bass Coast.
“I am very pleased to be nominated by my colleagues and those that I’ve worked with over many years,” said Elena.
“I feel like it is a collective recognition; my 25-year career has been entirely focused on various law reform objectives, particularly focused on improving system responses to violence against women and children.
“During the awards ceremony, it was great to see the sheer diversity of fields in which women are working hard to improve the experiences of women in Victoria.
“The crisis that we face in gendered violence is as serious as it’s ever been,” said Elena.
“However, having worked in government for 10 years supporting and driving reform in this area, so, looking back over 25 years, I know a lot has changed. We are talking about family violence in a way that we never did before. There are services that we’ve never seen before, and there is an increasingly common understanding and sophisticated response from services,” said Elena.
“It’s just that we always underestimate the scale, and so it’s not until we start talking about it that the scale becomes apparent, and that’s when we have to step back and widen our gaze and realise that there is so much more than we first envisioned, and that’s where we are at currently.”
By celebrating these women’s achievements and recognising their contributions, the Victorian Government is playing a vital role in increasing the representation of women in the public eye and building towards a more gender equal society.
More than 770 women have been inducted since the Victorian Honour Roll of Women began in 2001. The full list of inductees is available at vic.gov.au/victorian-honour-roll-of-women-inductees.
