The Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust

Kate Milligan Edger 

• First woman in NZ to gain a university degree (in 1877)
• First woman in British Empire to gain a BA degree
• A trailblazer for women's education
• A role model for and champion of the female suffrage movement
• A vocal exponent for women's contributions to public life
• A committed and compassionate teacher, involved in social work, a family person

Dame Charmian O'Connor
DNZM, CBE, JP, MSc, PhD (NZ), DSc (Auck), FRSNZ, FNZIC, FRSC, LTCL

Charmian spent 56 years as either a student or member of staff of the Chemistry Department at the University of Auckland, and has over 300 publications in refereed international journals. She was appointed Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Staff Development and Equal Employment Opportunities 1987-1998 and Deputy Vice-Chancellor 1994.

She was a Council Member of MIT for 13 years and of Unitec for 10 years. In 2005, prior to the wind-up of the Auckland Branch of the NZ Federation of Graduate Women, Charmian was instrumental in establishing the KEECT and transferring Academic Dress Hire to the Trust, thus ensuring continuation of the Awards Programme. She chaired the Board of Trustees for the first 9 nine years and has chaired the Awards Committee since its inception. She has also served on many national committees, including The Royal Society of New Zealand, the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and was Chair of the Science Sub-Committee for UNESCO.

Charmian is passionate about providing opportunities for women to undertake tertiary education, whether it be in assisting mature women to undertake study in order to return to a profession or to take up work in the community, or in encouraging young women to enter University or a Polytech and to extend their studies so as to reach their potential in creative activities or research. 

Professor Linda Bryder MA (1^st Class Hons) (Auck) DPhil (Oxon) FRSNZ FNZAH

Linda has taught in the Department of History, University of Auckland, since 1988 and has been Professor of History since 2005. Originally completing her MA (1^st Class Hons) at the University of Auckland in 1980, she was awarded her DPhil at the University of Oxford in 1985, where she held a Research Fellowship and subsequently a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Queen’s College Oxford. She maintains her links with Britain; since 2007 she has been an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Since joining the academic staff of the University of Auckland in 1988, Linda has served on many University and Faculty Committees, including Research, Staffing and Library Committees. She has been Head of Department, and has served as Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Arts. She has been awarded a University Research Excellence Award and a Teaching Excellence Award. The latter was based on her successful record of mentoring and supervising graduate students, particularly at PhD level. She has also mentored in the University’s  Women in Leadership programme. She currently serves on the Auckland Libraries Heritage Trust, and is co-editor of the New Zealand Journal of History.

Nina Tomaszyk
General Manager
Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust t/a Academic Dress Hire

With extensive experience in the corporate and in the not-for-profit world, Nina brings an array of skills and experience – including fundraising, management, marketing, finance, and business ownership – to the Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust.

Nina was most recently with the Neurological Foundation but has also worked for the Auckland Foundation, the Starship Foundation, in the finance world, and in her own recruitment business.

Customer satisfaction and service delivery is important to her, in addition to maintaining staff engagement and cost effectiveness.

‘What New Zealand women and men have already achieved through education is great; I am enthusiastic about the educational outcomes this trust and charitable enterprise has supported in the past and the present, and am excited to expand our opportunities to support women in the future.’