Our People

Anjum Rahman – Founder

Anjum Rahman is a chartered accountant with over 25 years’ experience, working with a range of entities in the commercial, farming and not-for-profit sectors.  Her knowledge and experience, coupled with attention to detail, see Anjum working on more complex accounting jobs and providing larger businesses with monthly reporting and management accounts. Anjum has specialist skills in financial reporting standards, taxation of investment income and farm accounting.

She also commits to various volunteer roles in the community.  She was a founding member of the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand, an organisation formed in 1990 to bring Muslim women together and represent their concerns. Over the years, she has been Chair, secretary, and for many years, the media spokesperson. She has also been a founding member and trustee of Shama (Hamilton Ethnic Women’s Centre), a social service organisation that provides support to ethnic women through its social work service, life-skills classes and community development. She has worked in the area of sexual violence prevention both as a volunteer and as part of Government working group.  Last year, Anjum was appointed as a Trustee of Trust Waikato, a major funder in the Waikato Region.  Her most recent project is the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective.

Anjum has been an active member of the Waikato Interfaith Council for over a decade, a trustee of the Trust that governs Hamilton’s community access broadcaster, Free FM.   Along with these roles, she writes poetry, is a member of the interfaith choir, is a mother of two.  She takes on various public speaking engagements. Her favourite activity, for reasons which should be evident, is sleeping.

Team

Tim Foote – Strategic and Practice Advisor

Tim has been working with and learning about interpersonal communication, connection and conflict for over a decade. He supports, designs, facilitates and leads dynamic, responsive processes and projects that support people, communities and organisations to transform how they communicate and connect. Tim specialises in supporting people to identify and solve problems or complex interactions authentically and collaboratively.

Professionally, Tim is a mediator, facilitator, professional supervisor, and consultant. He mostly works with social good and impact-oriented organisations, as well as charities, corporates and local and national government. He is known for his work creating large scale community led change projects including Wellington Conversations | Kia whai take i Pōneke (2019/2020), a city wide event series backed by Wellington City Council to deepen neighbourhood connectedness throughout the city. Currently Tim is primarily working with individuals and organisations around New Zealand that work with people and communities – supporting them to understand and improve their practices, frameworks and tools.

Tim holds a Masters in Peace and Conflict Resolution and is an Advanced Accredited Mediator with Resolution Institute. He is a professional member of Resolution Institute NZ, Restorative Practices Aotearoa, and the Australian Clinical Supervision Association. Outside of work, Tim is a father, neighbour, gardener, musician, and a volunteer in the art and community sectors. He grew up in Vanuatu and Australia to Kiwi/Australian parents and has spent time living in France and Canada (Quebec). Tim has been living in Wellington with his family since 2014.

Talie Schmidt-Geen – Event Coordinator

Talie has worked in both corporate and not-for-profit fields in healthcare, IT and education in Aotearoa and internationally for the last twenty-five years.  She has extensive administration and event experience and has also organised events throughout the Asia Pacific region in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Australia and throughout New Zealand.  

She is of Samoan/German/Chinese descent and her parents came from Samoa in the 1950’s and raised their family in Tokoroa and Auckland.  She is the youngest of 8 children and with a large Samoan family, her siblings and their children is currently sitting at around just under 60 in numbers and growing.    She is married with two children. Her passions include sport, (basketball, rugby, cricket, and many more) and enjoying time with friends and family in her beautiful surroundings on the Hibiscus Coast, Whangaparaoa.

On a voluntarily basis she is also involved in Pacific Island committees and was a steering committee member of Women in HealthTech an organisation “striving to empower women with diverse range of thinking at all levels of the HealthTech industry and assist with effecting cultural change.”

Talie is motivated and excited about supporting the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective as an event co-ordinator and joining the team on the Tāhono waka.  

“He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.”    
What is the most important thing in life? It is people, it is people, it is people!

TeHuia Bill Hamilton - Tangata Whenua Advisor

Relationship building skills are my greatest strength combined with a high level of strategic and management thinking and style. I have extensive networks nationally and internationally. Having over 20 years experience in governance and senior management, and vast expertise in operational matters including reporting, monitoring and risk management, I have a proven record of achieving a high standard of outcomes.

I prefer an inclusive collaborative working style and have a proven record in teaching, training, facilitation, mediation and resource development. I have contributed to specific successful relationship building with iwi over many years. I have a sound knowledge of Tikanga Maori and mid-level competency in Te Reo Maori. I am strongly supported by my iwi, hapu and whanau. My written and oral communication skills are well developed and I am highly skilled in weaving the Treaty of Waitangi into business management and community development, the latter being a passion for me. I have experience working at local, regional, national and international levels.

Past Team Members

Sara Hewitson – Data Analyst & Comms

An experience design consultant, Sara has a background in customer research, solution design, channel and experience strategy, digital migration and project management. 
 
Sara draws on agile and human-centred design methodologies to ensure research approaches focus on individuals and understanding their journeys: analysing qualitative findings and the impacts of their experiences, and how to resolve core issues and needs.
 
Sara has worked across both government and private enterprise on qualitative research projects – as well as developing the subsequent strategies and solution designs.

She also has a background in digital UX design, online marketing, print media – and has previously worked on various New Zealand publications as a writer and editor.

Nona Morris – Project Associate

Growing  up as a TCK (Third Culture Kid), meant moving between countries and cultures from primary through high school, a childhood that gave Nona insight into and experience in cross-cultural communication, understanding different world views and being adaptable.  While completing tertiary study in the USA in biology, anthropology, and curriculum design, Nona accrued experience teaching in undergraduate education.  Her areas of interest are varied, but some favourites include epidemiology, marine ecology, visual anthropology,  child development, children’s literature, programme planning and design, and assessment practices in education. 

After completing her MA degree, Nona moved to East Africa as the co-director of a tertiary field studies programme, and later, did similar work in Nepal.  Nona and her husband moved to New Zealand in 1996 to direct a field studies programme in biodiversity and conservation studies, which took them all over the country; the nature of the programme required helping students to understand the complex nature of consultation between stakeholders when addressing a single issue.  

In all she has been field of education for the past 30 years, teaching and mentoring in a range of subjects across all sectors from early childhood to university to adult education, and believes strongly in inclusivity and protecting the vulnerable. As a service-minded advocate for community organisations, Nona brings the experience of volunteering with a variety of different groups in New Zealand from Playcentre, Scouts and Junior Naturalists to Amnesty International, ecological restoration projects and numerous school-based groups. Nona hopes to bring her experiences in education, cross-cultural communication, community service, sustainable living, and her inclusive approach to group-based activities to the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective.

Sandra James – Senior Advisor

Growing up in a grocery store in a rural town in Canterbury, New Zealand in the 1970s taught Sandra about the power of human connections and community.

From a young age, Sandra’s experiences within her community showed her that small communities are capable of great things and that all transformative ideas have humble beginnings.

Sandra is highly regarded as an effective and efficient professional with proven expertise in community development and innovative community engagement, as well as extensive experience in project management.

Sandra has previously worked in local government for two decades specialising in community development and championing community-led approaches that create strong and vibrant communities.

She has established relationships and networks locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in central and local government and NGO and community sectors.

Following the devastating earthquakes in Greater Christchurch in 2010, Sandra was appointed Waimakariri District Council’s Social Recovery Manager and led a highly-successful programme that delivered great outcomes for the impacted communities of Kaiapoi, Pines Beach and Kairaki. She also led the New Zealand Red Cross Recovery team, collaborating widely across greater Christchurch to develop a community-focused Recovery Plan in 2015.

Since then Sandra has worked passionately to connect and empower citizens and communities.

Our Māori Advisory Team

We are so honoured to have Sandy Morrison and Matua Tom Roa take on the roles of Te Ao Maori kaitohutohu and kaiārahi.  Their guidance and wisdom has been invaluable, and we particularly thank Professor Roa for the name Tāhono. Thank you to both for agreeing to support and guide our journey of belonging and inclusion.  

Sandy Morrison

Sandy is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Maori and Indigenous Studies, University of Waikato. Her scholarship focuses on indigenous models of development partnerships under the Treaty of Waitangi as well as education for sustainable development. She is also the winner of the National Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award for Sustained Excellence in a Kaupapa Māori Context. She is the current President of the International Council of Adult Education and was admitted to the International Adult and Community Education Hall of Fame, Oklahoma University in 2009. Tribally , she descends from Te Arawa, Maniapoto and Te Tau Ihu o te Waka a Māui.

Associate Professor Dr. Tom Roa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato) J.P.

Dr. Roa is the former chief negotiator for Waikato-Tainui, a former chairman and current member of both the Waikato-Tainui Executive committee (Te Arataura) and the Waikato-Tainui tribal parliament (Te Whakakitenga o Waikato). He is an esteemed kaumātua and orator within Tainui waka. His principal interests include Waikato-Maniapoto oral and written history and traditions, the Kīngitanga, Māori-English translation and Māori traditional knowledge relating to flora, fauna, marine resources and also to land.

Funders

We would like to thank our generous funders who have enabled us to embark on this project:

Supporters

We would like to thank our supporters who have offered us guidance and assistance with many aspects of this project:

Volunteers

Further Acknowledgements

I’d particularly like to thank Nicola Brehaut and Jade Tang-Taylor of Foundation North for their ideas and input into this proposal. I’d also like to acknowledge the work and advice of Anna McMartin, Maureen Marra of InLeadership and Rachel Hopkins of Diversity Works.