Congratulations to the recipient of the CRDC Chris Lehmann Cotton Young Achiever Award for 2024, announced tonight at the Australian Cotton Industry Awards - cotton researcher and extension officer, Sharna Holman!
Sharna is a development and extension officer with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Queensland), the industry's biosecurity technical lead with CottonInfo, and a PhD student supported by CRDC.
Sharna splits her time between Toowoomba Qld and Kununurra WA, where she is conducting her PhD research into a damaging pest for northern cotton, the cluster caterpillar, which will inform industry pest management practices. In her role with CottonInfo, Sharna has driven awareness of the importance of biosecurity, and through her effort, more than half of Australian cotton farms are now equipped with a biosecurity plan.
The Chris Lehmann Young Achiever of the Year Award is named in honour of the late Chris Lehmann, and provides recognition of the rising stars in our industry - like this year's finalists: Sharna, Elsie Hudson and Alexandra Trinder.
CRDC had informally supported this award for many years as part of the judging panel, and in 2023 we came on board as the award sponsor: something we've proudly repeated in 2024!
As part of CRDC's support, Sharna will be offered the opportunity to attend the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation's TRAIL program, to further support her development as one of our industry's future leaders.
We'd like to acknowledge Cotton Australia for hosting the Australian Cotton Industry Awards; the Chris Lehmann family for their ongoing support of the Young Achiever Award award; this year's finalists Sharna, Alex and Elsie; and the judging panel: chair and cottongrower Aaron Kiely, 2023 CRDC award recipient Emma Bond, cotton consultant Steve Madden, Chris's daughter Jess Lehmann and CRDC's Ruth Redfern.
