Auckland Women's Centre

Collective

Members of the Governance Collective provide AWC with guidance, governance, accountability, and support within a collective framework. Members are involved in all aspects of the Centre and provide invaluable knowledge, skills and ideas. The Governance Collective is elected at our AGM which is open to all AWC members and held in December every year.

Aorewa McLeod

Aorewa Mcleod has lived in Auckland most of her 69 years. She has an MA from Victoria and a BPhil from Oxford. Now retired, she was in the English dept at Auckland University for 37 years where she specialized in women’s writing, both nineteenth century and contemporary, and in feminist theory. She is on the collective of the NZ Women’s Studies Assn and lives in Western Springs with her partner, artist Fran Marno.

Caroline Fergusson

Caroline is a young lawyer working in Auckland who has a keen interest in feminism and social justice. She has a BA/LLB (Hons) in Political Science and History. While at Auckland University, she held the position of Women's Rights Officer in 2009, and was contracted by the Auckland Coaliton for the Safety of Women and Children to run a campaign focused on relationship violence against young women. Caroline has also completed an internship with Amnesty International, during which she worked on the Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

Christy Parker

Christy moved to Auckland from Wellington to take a position as Policy Analyst at Women’s Health Action. Christy is a registered midwife and has practised in both the hospital and community settings and is passionate about issues related to women’s health and wellbeing, as well as feminist perspectives on health and bodies. Christy has a Masters in Women and Gender Studies from Massey University for which she completed a thesis on reproductive rights in Aotearoa. She has had a long involvement with feminist and other community organisations and is excited to be part of the Women’s Centre.

Emily Trent

Emily first became involved with the Centre in 2004 as a student on placement, and is very pleased to be on the Collective. She works in economic and social public policy research, with a focus on creating strong cross-sectoral partnerships. She has a particular interest in issues of economic development, sustainability, and women's rights. Emily has an M.B.A from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. She has also studied at the Universitat St. Gallen in Switzerland and the School for International Training in Australia.

Janine Peters

Janine has been involved in a number of community and advocacy roles, both paid and unpaid. Her interest is to improve the situation of women and children through policy and support roles with not-for-profit organisations.
She has a BA in Anthropology and an LLB focusing on policy in Employment, Family, and Health Care. Janine is currently studying towards a Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management. She has an interest in the convergence of law and sociology, especially in relation to the impact of law on women and children.

Jude Lainchbury

Jude has spent the last fifteen years as a Mediator, currently with the Department of Labour, which has enabled her to develop a broad range of skills in communication, negotiation, dispute resolution and mediation. She has a Diploma in Business Studies in Dispute Resolution. Jude hails from Christchurch and was a community worker with Health Alternatives for Women and also a member of their collective. She is passionate about working women’s and lesbian rights.

Jules Radford-Poupard

Julie has worked in the not for profit sector for over 15 years and is passionate about feminism, social justice and queer rights. She has a BA Hon in Social Anthropology and has had a varied career working in politics, housing, community development, events and youth programme delivery. She resides in Pt Chev with her partner Annalise and two fur babies.

Nicola Whyte

Nikki has recently moved from Wellington to Auckland (and from the international development sector to the health sector) and is now working at Women's Health Action. As a young mother, Nikki is interested in how our society treats girls and young women and has recently become involved in the group Mothers For Choice, advocating for a pro-choice reform of New Zealand's abortion laws. Nikki has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in International Relations from Victoria University, which included looking at how international aid policies affect reproductive rights in developing countries.

Sarah Greenaway

Sarah has been a member of the AWC Management Collective since late 2004 and has been a single parent for many years. Her PhD research focused on rape prevention and feminist theorising about rape. Sarah is keen to explore ways of utilising her academic and research skills to benefit women's organisations and achieve feminist goals. She is currently a qualitative researcher at the Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation (SHORE) at Massey University and has worked on a number of community action and research projects.

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