HALL OF FAME

Dr Katherine Mead (nee Brumpton)

2020 Inductee

Student 1990 - 1994

Dr Katheine (Katie) Mead was born in central Queensland and moved to south-east Queensland with her family to attend Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School as a day girl from 1990 to 1994. She received the Australian Student Prize in 1994.

Dr Mead graduated from the University of Queensland with honours degrees in Arts (International Politics) and Law, and a doctorate in international relations.

Soon after graduating, she joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) as a trainee and in 2007 she took up her first position as an Australian diplomat, to the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While there, she advised the Australian Government on Malaysia’s key political events and promoted Australian interests in Malaysia, including during two Australian Prime Ministerial visits.

At DFAT headquarters in Canberra, and in between periods of maternity leave, Dr Mead worked across a variety of Australia’s international priorities, including designing the program to prepare DFAT’s rapid response team for crises affecting Australians overseas. She has advise the Government on Australia’s bilateral relationships with Singapore, Myanmar and Indonesia.

Since 2016, Dr Mead has worked on the Government’s international human rights agenda. She was the lead author of Australia’s Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty and is currently a senior negotiator on the team representing Australia during its membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council (2018 – 2020). Since 2018, she has been based at the Permanent Mission of Australia to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr Mead currently lives in Geneva with her husband, Jason and three children. Her family is an integral part of her success and provides rich balance in her busy life.