Dawn Freshwater FRCN is a British academic, university professor, mental health researcher, and the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland.[1]
Dawn Freshwater | |
---|---|
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland | |
Assumed office March 2020 | |
Preceded by | Stuart McCutcheon |
Personal details | |
Born | 1962 (age 61–62) Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom |
Website | www |
Alma mater | University of Nottingham (PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mental health Nurse education |
Institutions | University of Auckland University of Leeds University of Western Australia |
Thesis | Transformatory Learning in Nurse Education (1998) |
Freshwater was born in a mining family in Nottingham, with two younger brothers. She left school at the age of 15 because her parents became unwell. Freshwater trained as a nurse and was the first member of her family to attend university.[2] Her doctoral research investigated the impact of transformative learning on nursing students for which she awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham in 1998.[3][4]
In 2006 Freshwater joined the University of Leeds.[5] Her research concentrated on forensic psychology, and studied the impact of marginalised groups with severe mental health issues.[6]
Freshwater was appointed the Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) at the University of Leeds in 2011.[5] She led the School of Medicine application for an Athena SWAN award and served a member of the assessment panel for the Research Excellence Framework (REF).[4] During this time, she served on the Council of Deans for Nursing and Midwifery and was a trustee of the Florence Nightingale Foundation.[7]
In 2014 Freshwater moved to Australia.[2] Freshwater joined the University of Western Australia as Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor in 2016.[8] In 2017 she was made the Vice Chancellor, and led the first Inclusion and Division strategy.[9] She was the first woman to be made Chair of the Group of Eight in 2018.[2] She also led the Matariki network of universities. At the University of Western Australia Freshwater established the Public Policy Institute, which translates research into real-world solutions for the Indo-Pacific region.[10]
In 2019 Freshwater became the first woman to be appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Auckland whilst remaining a professor of mental health at the University of Leeds.[11] During her appointment at the University of Auckland, there has been has a substance increment of the QS ranking in the overall university category and in the new sustainability category.[12][13][14][15] She has been invited as a keynote speaker in several international ranking event hosted by the Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).[16][17][18]
Freshwater has authored and co-authored over 100 peer reviewed papers[19] and she is among the top 2% cited scientists according to the 2023 Stanford/Elsevier ranking.[20] Some of her selected works are:
In 2001 Freshwater was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (FRCN).[4]
Freshwater is a marathon runner and has completed the London Marathon seven times.[10][27]