Young Leader Award celebrates Auckland alumna diversity champion

The diversity champion was nominated for her work co-developing sustained mentoring programmes and other initiatives for women studying undergraduate degrees in Business and Law.

Professor Christine Woods, Associate Dean Equity and Theresa Gattung Chair in Women in Entrepreneurship, describes the young leader as exuding a rare blend of confidence and humility.

“Kate is a really impressive young woman – focused, passionate and committed," she said.

“One quality that shines through, from experienced leaders like Theresa Gattung and emerging entrepreneurs like Kate, is their care for women in their communities and their desire to see those women succeed.

“From my role as an educator, I want to see people achieve their potential. It is through work like Kate’s, which is giving young women the knowledge, skills, and confidence to do the great things that they want to do, that helps make this happen.”

Kate says the Young Leader's Award provides a strong platform for her to continue her pursuit of gender equity.

“Women today still face the same barriers of discrimination and bias. Although these may play out differently than in previous generations, we need better strategies and new systems to support women and to change these outcomes.”

It is not enough that Kate sees a problem, action is important. She is compelled to make change. Starting from zero, the mentoring programmes and initiatives she has led have now engaged more than 500 young women across the campus.

Kate says asking questions and collecting granular data are also important steps in the right direction.

“After all, how can you serve people or begin to understand their challenges when you don’t even know who they are?

“In large institutions like universities, equity issues can be hidden. For example, women are well-represented in Law, however there is more work to be done as many come from similar backgrounds or communities. The Law School mentoring programme addresses this need for greater intersectional diversity.”

Kate points to the Faculty of Business and Economics as another example.

“The Faculty has strong representation of women but looking more closely at specialisations and majors, you can see marked disparities between the concentrations of male and female students.

“Advancing diversity and inclusion means we must continue to identify areas for improvement and garner commitment for action.”