About Anne Hayden

Anne Hayden is a remarkable, compassionate and driven woman. Throughout her personal and professional life she has worked to help women find their place in society and deal with the consequences of the darker side of human nature.

Anne began her professional career as a general and maternity nurse, before moving on to tackle challenging roles, first as a social worker, and then as an investigating officer for the Ombudsmen.

Over the last 20 years, Anne has gained considerable experience in community work with women, particularly in the fields of criminal justice and women's rights. For her management and homicide support work with the Victim Support Group, Anne was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study initiatives for victims of crime at a local, national and statutory level in Australia, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

As the co-founder of the Homicide Survivors Support Group (NZ) Inc, Anne is intimately acquainted with the processes of restorative justice. She was a member and network coordinator of the Te Oritenga Restorative Justice Group, the first contemporary restorative justice group in New Zealand and wrote the Restorative Conferencing Manual of Aotearoa New Zealand (2000), commissioned by the District Courts of New Zealand.

Anne has also had numerous articles on restorative justice published in journals including the Offender Programmes Report (1999, 2006) and Children: A Newsletter from the Office of the Commissioner for Children (2002), and has a chapter in Love Chile's book, Community Practice in New Zealand: Exploring Good Practice, (2007).

Anne has always considered herself an advocate for women and women's rights in society, and has served as a contact person for sexual abuse and harassment procedures for the Auckland Presbytery as well as a committee member of Pacific Women's Watch.

Following the initiation of the Anne Easter Hayden Herceptin petition, which gained 18,166 signatures in support of funding for the breakthrough breast cancer drug Herceptin, Anne was asked to provide a submission to the Health Select Committee, which she provided along with supporting submissions from the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition and a number of oncologists. She was invited to join Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition's steering committee and has become a vocal advocate for breast cancer support and treatment. She was also appointed Chair of Herceptin Heroes. Although no longer in these roles, Anne supports advocacy for the funding the world standard of 12 months Herceptin treatment for women with the aggressive HER2 positive breast cancer, and better pharmaceutical funding for all New Zealanders.

Throughout all of this, including her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, Anne has continued with her university studies, progressing from her earlier Bachelor of Arts degree (Education and Psychology) (1983) and Masters degree in Education with Honours from the University of Auckland (1986), she is currently working towards her PhD at Auckland University of Technology in the Institute of Public Policy.

Anne lives in Auckland, with her husband David and her boxer dog.

Libby Burgess, Chairperson, Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition
www.breastcancer.org.nz