Senior Researcher with the Institute of Public Policy.
Kirsten has a PhD in Linguistics, but these days her teaching and research interests lie primarily in the area of children in public policy. The question underlying Kirsten’s most recent work is “What is the role of government in children’s well-being?” She has published on issues of relevance to this question (such as child impact reporting and the need to invest in children’s early years), lectured on the topic at undergraduate level and, along with Emma Davies and Ian Hassall, developed a postgraduate diploma in Children in Public Policy to be offered by the Institute of Public Policy from 2008 onwards. She has also been involved in advocacy through involvement in Every Child Counts and hopes to conduct research in the near future on the status of children in New Zealand society.