Anne Hawker, B Comm (Hons), Dip Ed, AFACHSE; QSM
Biographical Sketch
Anne Hawker currently serves as President Elect of RI and is World Chair of the Social Commission.
Anne has 32 years of involvement in the disability movement coming to the movement after being diagnosed with MS in 1978. She has 4 adult children and 2 grandchildren.
Anne has lived in NZ since 1976. She was born and educated in Australia, gaining a B Comm(Hons) Dip Ed and spent her early career as a teacher.After the birth of her first child, she moved into community development role within the community she lived in. During this time she served on a number of local, national and international committees. Including being President of the Otago MS Society, Otago DPA and Treasurer of the NZ Federation of Disability Information Centres and Treasurer of NZ Rehabilitation Society and Vice President of DPA.
She received an Award as MS Person of the year and NZ representative on the International Persons with MS Committee. She also took part as DPA representative in a number of DPI Asia Pacific regional events including at the Asia Pacific Decade of the Disabled. In 1988 she was awarded a QSM for services to the disability community.
In 1994, she moved to Wellington when she married Tom, her present husband. (She acquired 2 adult children as well). Her first husband died in 1988 at the age of 38 years and her children were 10 and 6.
In 1993 she became President of DPA and in 1996 she hosted the 1996 RI Congress in Auckland NZ. During her time as President of DPA she also had an active in the Regional Network for the Asia Pacific Decade of the Disabled.
In moving to Wellington she worked first of all as Chief Executive of the Head Injury society before moving as a manager to work first in the Ministry of Health, then the Accident Compensation Corporation and most recently in the Ministry of Social Development. She has been involved in Strategic development, service development and effective relationship development. Her current role as Principal Disability Adviser encompasses all of these roles.
For the last 4 years she has been the Social Commission Chair having been a member of the Commission since 1993. In 2006 she was elected President Elect of RI.