HIGHLY respected academic Professor Shelley Burgin will be guest speaker at the Murwillumbah Business Women's Network breakfast at Greenhills function centre on Thursday.

Prof Burgin is the Head of the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University.

Renowned as an inspirational speaker, Prof Burgin is living proof that any one can fulfil their ambitions through desire, dedication and hard work.

In the 1970s Prof Burgin was a house wife and mother who never dreamed of a career in academia.

Ever the dutiful wife, she accompanied her husband to a job in Papua New Guinea where, she says, her life began to change.

"I undertook a Masters in Biology as part of a IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) project to support crocodile farming in PNG and on our return to Australia I continued my studies by completing a PhD in evolutionary genetics at Macquarie University while I worked as an academic," Prof Burgin said.

After completing her PhD, she was hired as the first female lecturer in science at the then newly-created Hawkesbury campus of the University of Western Sydney.

The Murwillumbah Business Women's Network breakfast will be held at Greenhills on Tweed, 131 River St, Murwillumbah, between 7.45am-9am.

Cost is $20 for online bookings (until today) or $25 at the door.