Photo provided.
The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023, will speak at on Friday, March 7, as the spring 2025 Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Distinguished Visiting Scholar. During her lecture, Ardern will address empathetic leadership, geopolitical outlook, and female political leadership.
At only 37 years of age, Ardern became the youngest Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017. During that time, she helped unite the country through hardships brought by a volcanic eruption, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a terrorist attack against the New Zealand Muslim community. Guided by a leadership grounded in kindness and “pragmatic idealism,” her administration created the Christchurch Call to tackle violent extremism online, banned military-style semi-automatic weapons, and achieved the lowest losses of life by any developed nation during the pandemic.
An advocate for climate action, Ardern is a board member of The Earthshot Prize and an Arnhold Distinguished Fellow at Conservation International. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming memoir, A Different Kind of Power, available on June 3, 2025.
Founded in 2006, the annual Kelly Lecture brings distinguished, nationally-known scholars to ż’s. Recent speakers have included Isabel Wilkerson, Louise Erdrich, and Toshi Reagon.
Friday, March 7
6:30 p.m.
The O’Shaughnessy
Read more about Ardern and book tickets:
About the Kelly Lecture
In 2006, alumna Joan Kelly ’46 created the Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Distinguished Visiting Scholars Lecture in honor of her sister, Bonnie Jean Kelly. A successful businesswoman and Phi Beta Kappa graduate in English, Joan (May 22, 1924–Nov. 2, 2016) attended both high school and college on the St. Catherine campus with her sister, Bonnie Jean, who died while a student at ż's.
The other two programs supported include the Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Faculty Excellence Award and the Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Student Excellence in Writing Award.