At a special assembly last Friday we were proud to present the Distinguished Alumnae awards to Dr Helen Beattie and Ms Skye Duncan and to celebrate their achievements.

We were delighted that the 2019 Distinguished Alumna, Dr Helen Beattie, was able to join us on Friday, along with members of her family. After attending the College from 1989 to 1993, Dr Beattie has worked in a variety of veterinary roles, leading up to her present role as New Zealand Veterinary Association’s Chief Veterinary Officer. Following an upbringing in the Central Otago high country, surrounded by huntaways, merinos, crazy beef cattle and rabbits, an education at Columba College and Massey University, mixed animal practice in North Otago provided Helen with her first foray into the veterinary world.

This segued into a stint on the Foot and Mouth Response and working as a locum in the UK, before returning to grass roots in Dunedin, where in partnership, Helen purchased a small animal veterinary practice. 

Education of veterinary nurses at Otago Polytechnic followed, and then further education to become a warranted animal welfare inspector whilst employed as the Director of Animal Welfare at SPCA Otago.

Helen moved from there to her current role - the New Zealand Veterinary Association’s Chief Veterinary Officer. This role is national level advocacy, leadership and politicking on behalf of the veterinary profession and for animal welfare.

The 2018 Distinguished Alumna, Ms Skye Duncan, is hoping to visit later in the year but we welcomed along her parents who received the award on her behalf.

Ms Duncan attended the College from 1991 to 1997 and has gone on to a noteworthy international career in urban design. She has a Bachelor of Architecture with Honours from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and she graduated as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University New York in the Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design program.

Ms Duncan is an urban designer with over 15 years of experience in architecture, urban design and planning, and spent seven years working as a Senior Urban Designer at the New York City Department of City Planning in their Office of the Chief Urban Designer. There, she worked on design projects in all five boroughs involving streets, public spaces, housing, and institutional buildings, while collaborating with multiple agencies and organizations on citywide policies to make New York a more sustainable, resilient, livable, and healthy city.

Ms Duncan has worked professionally as an International Urban Design Consultant in Brazil, Colombia, Canada and New Zealand, and was an Associate Professor at Columbia University in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation for seven years.

She is presently the Director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative at the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) in New York where she has been leading a multi-year program funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop the new Global Street Design Guide and to provide technical assistance to cities around the world on safe and sustainable street design, including São Paulo and Fortaleza in Brazil, Bogotá in Columbia, Mumbai in India, and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Speaking to the media following the event, Columba College Principal, Mrs Pauline Duthie, said that “the College is immensely proud of its alumni and we have watched the careers of Ms Duncan and Dr Beattie with great interest. The diversity of roles that our students move on to after their time with us is stunning and the willingness of many of our alumni to share their experiences with our current students underlines the great sense of community we enjoy at Columba”.

Our 2017 Distinguished Alumna, Ms Amanda Ellis, has been unable to visit in recent times and her mother, Mrs Natalie Ellis-Wilson a former long-time teacher at Columba, was able to receive the award on Amanda’s behalf.

We are grateful to Holly Bancroft, Year 13, for capturing the day in these photos.