Nominations for the 2025 WiSAAs are now open! Nominators of winning nominees will be advised one week ahead of International Women’s Day (8th March 2025) so that they may make arrangements for award presentation on the day!
— 2025 AWARD NOMINATIONS OPEN —
The Women in Security Awards Aotearoa (WiSAA) initiative was established in 2020 to promote the role of women in sectors where they are still significantly under-represented, and to recognise women who are advancing Aotearoa New Zealand’s security, risk and resilience sectors.
The Awards are organised by Defsec New Zealand and the New Zealand Security Sector Network (NZSSN), and their promotion is supported by partnering organisations, including New Zealand Security Association, ASIS International New Zealand Chapter, and RiskNZ.
Heather Jones, Director, Aegis Private Security, a 2021 WiSAA Recipient.
“What makes WiSAA uniquely special is the fact that it cuts across security domain boundaries and across the public, private, and community sectors in a way that no other awards programme in our sector does,” said NZSM and Line of Defence Magazine chief editor Nicholas Dynon. “The awards are also independent and are not resourced by sponsorships or event tickets, just the efforts of volunteers.”
“This year we’re retiring our old cohort of award categories in favour of what we believe to be a revolutionary new approach in which our nine categories correspond to the protection of New Zealanders from particular threats,” he said.
The award categories for 2025 are:
- Contributing to defence and international security
- Protecting borders, trade, and biosecurity
- Countering incivility and violent extremism
- Preventing crime and protecting communities
- Securing organisations and infrastructure
- Safeguarding networks and people online
- Combatting fraud and misrepresentation
- Responding to natural disaster events
- Building resilient and informed communities
Nominees must be women, or identify as women, with more than three years of experience in any occupation within either the physical security, personnel security, information security, cybersecurity, investigations, intelligence, risk management, emergency management or resilience domains, and be actively practising in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Nominations are encouraged from across the private, public (including government, education, military, and law enforcement) and community sectors. It is important to note that these awards are open to the broader security sector, not just ‘industry’. Self-nominations are welcomed.
Andrew Thorburn, WiSAA co-founder.
“It has been extremely encouraging since the commencement of the Awards in 2020 to see continued recognition of inspirational professionals from across the broader security and resilience sector,” said WiSAA co-founder and NZSSN member Andrew Thorburn. “It is becoming more evident that as the sector matures it is characterised by increasing levels of inclusiveness and diversity.”
Nominations are assessed on the extent to which the nominee’s efforts over the previous 18 months reflect the values articulated in the category descriptions.
The deadline for nominations is 4:00pm, Friday 21 February 2025, with nominations of no more than 1,000 words (including supporting material) sought.
Nominators of winners and runners-up will be notified of the result, and certificates and citations sent to them, one week ahead of International Women’s Day on 08 March 2025.
WiSAA Category Winners and Highly Commended Finalists receive a Certificate of Award and Citation in recognition of their achievement and are issued (via Certifier) with the coveted Category Winner or Highly Commended badge (similar to the above). Individuals or organisations submitting an accepted nomination are entitled to use the Supporter Logo and are issued with the Supporter Certificate and badge to promote their support of Women in Security.
