About Us

Our Vision

Women in Agriculture Scotland is an important grassroots movement for positive change to empower and increase the confidence of their membership to achieve their aspirations and create a more progressive, successful and inclusive industry

Our Mission

Women in Ag Scotland achieve this by supporting members to build and foster networks within the agricultural industry; by influencing and furthering the progression of women in agriculture to achieve equality of opportunity in the industry on behalf of the membership; by inspiring their members to reach their full potential; and, to develop members personally and professionally through events and training.

Meet The Committee

Every committee member serves a three-year term and
committee members are voted on by the WiAS membership.

CHAIR - HEATHER WILDMAN

A Cumbrian Girl born and bred, Heather was brought up on family sheep and beef hill farm in the lake district and has been living and working in Scotland for over 19 years.

Heather has over 26 years’ experience of working with both farmers and industry in Scotland and the UK. Her international network has been developed from working around the world, developing her career and Nuffield Farming Scholarship travels in 2012 where she studied “Communication – influencing and motivating change”

VICE CHAIR - CAROLE BRUNTON

My name is Carole Brunton, my husband Ian and I have 3 of a family, Lianne is a Physiotherapist in Edinburgh, Jenny is a Senior European Policy Advisor with the British Agriculture Bureau in Brussels and Ally is at home on the farm.On the farm we have 260 breeding ewes and 300 acres made up of 250 arable and 50 grass & woodland.We also have a 500kw wind turbine on the farm which was erected in 2015. Having been born and raised on a farm, agriculture and the rural industry has always been a huge part of my life. This passion has led to agriculture and education being at the heart of both my professional and personal life. Honorary President of Fife & Kinross Young Farmers and a Director of the local Community Development Trust. In my spare time I enjoy going for walks, travel, spending time with my friends and family and a bit of socialising!

SECRETARY - ELLIE SINCLAIR

Ellie is the Digestate Manager within her family business Sinclair Agricultural & Recycling Services in Aberdeenshire. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Media & Business from Robert Gordon’s University, however realised quickly that was not what she wanted to do. She went home to work on the farm in 2016, and from there has gone from strength to strength. She is now studying a Masters in Agriculture Professional Practice through SRUC with the hopes to become a farm consultant.

LUCY MITCHELL - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Lucy is from a family beef farm in Fife. She is an Events Manager for the James Hutton Institute and the National Chair of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC).

ALANA BLACK - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Alana has a Bachelor of Communications – Public Relations, is a graduate of the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership Programme and is the Communications Manager – Press and Media for Food Standards Scotland the public sector food body for Scotland.Before moving to Scotland from Australia, Alana founded a project focused on farm succession and, as a result, was announced as an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Trailblazer. She lives in Aberdeenshire and spends her weekends as a professional gate opener and bucket filler on her fiancé’s organic dairy farm.

AYLETT ROAN - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Aylett Roan is a Director of the Royal Highland and Agriculture Society of Scotland and runs the family doorstep milk delivery business Roan’s Dairy. Roan’s Dairy was set up in 2015 to enable the family to add value to their milk, allowing a sustainable future on the farm for the generations to come.

EILIDH ROBERTSON - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Eilidh lives on a farm near Pitlochry with her husband Craig, who is farming in partnership with his father and Aunt. They have 170 cows and 700 ewes across three farms (one owned, two tenanted). Craig and Eilidh have two farm obsessed sons (age 3 & 5yrs) and she has her own photography business specialising in photographing rural weddings, families and businesses across Scotland. She is a graduate of the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership Programme and has been a member of the WiAS committee since November 2020.

CLAIRE HODGE - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Claire is Head of Crops for Agri-EPI. After graduating from Newcastle
University in 2005 with a degree in Agriculture, Claire worked on farms in New Zealand before joining Greenvale AP in 2006. It was here that she was introduced to the opportunities within the potato industry. Taking on various roles in procurement, trading, agronomy and factory production, she learnt about the challenges of the cycles in potato production.

ALIX RITCHIE - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Alix farms in Perthshire with husband John and is Health and Education Manager for Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), being passionate about educating the public about where their food comes from. Previously, Alix was a Project Coordinator for Perth and Kinross Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) and has also worked for Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC) as East Regional Coordinator.

IONA SMITH - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Iona is from a Pedigree Beef and Sheep Farm on the West Coast of Scotland. She graduated in the summer of 2022 with a BA Hons in Rural Business Management and began her professional career with Davidson and Robertson in September 2022 as a Graduate Rural Surveyor. She loves all things agricultural especially cows from relief milking in her spare time to prepping animals for shows and sales. She recently started her own pedigree Shorthorn herd and is excited about expanding and the future of it. She also enjoys the gym, swimming, and young farmers.

DOREEN ANDERSON - COMMITTEE MEMBER

I live on an estate in the heart of Dumfries and Galloway on a beef and sheep farm with my partner. We manage a flock of 1200 breeding ewes and a herd of 120 Belted Galloways.

I recently moved roles within AHDB and now lead on the work in the Dairy KE team across Scotland and North England. Working directly with our dairy levy payers and stakeholders, managing the knowledge exchange delivery. This includes Strategic Dairy farms, open meetings and discussion group work mainly but working alongside other stakeholders to help ensure our dairy farmers and the industry is sustainable and equipped to face their challenges.

MARY JANE LAWRIE - COMMITTEE MEMBER

Mary-Jane Lawrie is an agricultural consultant with SAC Consulting based in the Edinburgh office. She oversees the Women in Agriculture projects for Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service, which includes podcasts, webinars and local groups, which are now run in 14 locations across Scotland. Outside of work, Mary-Jane also helps run the farm business with her husband and in-laws just outside Edinburgh.

ALISA SMITH - COMMITTEE MEMBER

I am newly qualified solicitor at Turcan Connell in one of their land and property teams, and have a particular interest in agricultural law. I’ve previously worked with Argyll and Bute council, NFUS and the Scottish Land Court, so I feel as though I have a good grasp of the current legislation and governance structures which affect Scottish agriculture. There’s always plenty to learn, and I’m very happy to get stuck into everything and anything farming!

My background is in dairy farming in Kintyre, and now that I live on the East Coast I have to say I really miss the cows. I still spend plenty of time helping my parents with the milking, feeding calves and driving silage, and I feel like I could be a useful part of the committee. The work that Women in Agriculture Scotland do is absolutely fantastic and I would be honoured to be a part of it.

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Industry Partners

The work conducted by WiAS could not happen without the support of industry partners. A big thank you to our core sponsors Turcan Connell and Johnston Carmichael.

WiAS has drawn together a collective of organisations: The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), Royal Bank of Scotland, Savills, Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS), Scottish Association of Young Farmers (SAYFC) to support women across rural Scotland to: