AIFE Governance – Board Of Directors

Career / Professional Highlights

Formal Title: Professor

Role with AIFE: Board Director

Professor Dawn Freshwater is an internationally recognised higher education leader, academic and researcher with extensive experience in university governance, strategy, research, international engagement and institutional transformation.

Professor Freshwater has held senior leadership roles at some of the world’s leading universities. Most recently, she served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland from 2020 to 2026, becoming the University’s first female Vice-Chancellor. Prior to this, she was Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia (UWA), following earlier roles as UWA’s Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Registrar and as Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leeds.

She has held significant leadership and governance positions across the international higher education sector, including as the first female Chair of Australia’s Group of Eight (Go8), Chair of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Partnership Board, and in leadership roles with Universities New Zealand, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and Research Australia. She is currently Executive Director of the Worldwide Universities Network.

An accomplished academic, Professor Freshwater holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham and has an extensive research and publication record spanning mental health, public health and leadership. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and an elected member of Academia Europaea.

Professor Freshwater brings to the AIFE Board substantial expertise in higher education governance, academic quality, research, international partnerships and values-led leadership. Her global perspective and experience leading complex higher education institutions will support AIFE as it strengthens its academic foundations and expands its international education and transnational partnerships.