Dawn Freshwater, Prof.

Professor Freshwater is a globally recognized leader, having worked in world-class universities for almost two decades. She became the University of Auckland’s first female Vice-Chancellor in March 2020, after serving at the University of Western Australia as Vice-Chancellor and Chair of the Go8 in Australia. Recent Chair of Asia Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Steering Committee, and Presidential Champion for the Asia Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) she has extensive global governance experience across the Higher Education sector. She is currently the Chair of Research Australia, Chair of Universities New Zealand Research Committee, and was recently appointed Executive Director of the World University Network (WUN) having previously been Chair.

As an academic and clinician, Dawn has been elected to the Academia Europaea (MAE), is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (FRCSI) and Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (FRCN). She was listed in the top 2% of researchers in Stanford-Elsevier List 2024 in Public Health, Clinical Psychology and Nursing.