Creating Opportunities for Everyone

Through the influence of her mother’s teacher aid work, Katie developed a passion for and deep involvement in supporting people with disabilities at a young age. Throughout her career, she has actively sought opportunities to improve access for the disabled community in New Zealand – including experience in both volunteer and paid roles with organizations in the disability and sport/recreation sectors. Katie is passionate about enhancing opportunities for people with disabilities to be active across Aotearoa, New Zealand.

As the Recreation Aotearoa Disability and Inclusion Programme Manager, Katie’s role is to develop and champion national standards, guidelines, and advice for the active recreation sector to improve access to recreation places and spaces for people with disabilities across New Zealand. In addition, Katie is a volunteer board member of a recently established regional disability sports organization – Disability Sport and Recreation Hawke’s Bay. She has recently finished her master’s degree exploring how coach education can improve the inclusion of people with disabilities in mainstream sports.

Katie strongly believes in the power of sport and recreation to enhance the lives of people with disabilities. Her mission is to accelerate and enhance the accessibility of recreation places and spaces in Aotearoa through advocacy, developing guidelines and standards, and advice to the sector.