Homeward Bound - Flagship Initiative
Taking an audacious idea
to the ends of the earth
Challenge
What if you brought women scientists from around the world together, took them to Antarctica and equipped them to lead differently?
That audacious idea became Homeward Bound: a global leadership initiative created to tackle the systemic underrepresentation of women in STEMM and build a more inclusive, collaborative model of leadership.
Solution
Julia joined Homeward Bound as founding faculty, helping launch a global leadership program and subsequent movement. She helped shape the initiative’s strategy and communications, co-designed and delivered its year-long leadership programs and founded its Visibility stream.
Each 12-month program brought together up to 100 women from around the world and culminated in a month-long immersive expedition to Antarctica, making the first voyage the world's largest all-women expedition to the icy continent. Julia helped design these immersive learning experiences and joined two Antarctic voyages as a coach and facilitator.
Her work on visibility operated at two levels: equipping participants to use their expertise and voices for greater influence, while building Homeward Bound's own profile. It quickly went global, attracting international media attention and an audience approaching one billion people.
Julia also helped build and lead a diverse team of global visibility experts, extending that capability across the program.
Outcome
Over ten years, Homeward Bound achieved the audacious vision it started with: building a global network of 1,000 women in STEMM from 50+ countries.
It was named by Forbes as one of the 25 best things to happen for women, recognised by Vogue as a Global Gamechanger and was the subject of the feature documentary, The Leadership. Its patrons included the late primatologist Jane Goodall, Paris Agreement architect Christiana Figueres and pioneering marine biologist Sylvia Earle.
Homeward Bound's influence travelled beyond the initiative itself, into climate negotiations, conservation advocacy, groundbreaking research work, politics and communities around the world. Its alumnae included a Nobel Prize winner, the leader of the Scottish Greens and a Costa Rican vice-presidential nominee.
What began as an audacious idea became a global leadership movement and a platform for wider change.
Services
Strategic design
Strategic advisory
Visibility
Programs
