Hannah Steiner-Mitchell, our project manager and research analyst, is leaving us for the beautiful streets of Budapest. There, she intends to research her family history, with the goal of writing a book about her grandparents’ lives. Hannah’s grandparents, along with her father, came to New Zealand in 1958 as refugees after leaving Budapest during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Hannah has always been inspired and intrigued by her grandparents’ story, recounted vividly by her wonderful grandmother – whom I have had the pleasure of meeting.
Hannah also plans to teach English. Hannah is passionate about creating equal opportunities for young people and believes that education is a key area where this can be achieved. Hannah is looking forward to experiencing the practical side of teaching, and to finding out what it will teach her in turn.
Hannah and her husband will be arriving in Budapest in April after a trip through Asia. If you know anyone who is living in Budapest, it would be great to connect them with Hannah. Please let me know if you have contacts there and I will send you Hannah’s personal email address.
Hannah has worked at the Institute since 2012 after completing her BA with First Class Honours in Political Science in 2011. During her time with us she has worked on a variety of projects, most notably as the project manager of Project: TalentNZ. Hannah attended the World Future Society Conference with me in July 2015 and subsequently authored Think Piece 23: The Future of Talent: Reflections from the WFS conference 2015. Hannah has helped organise three workshops at the Institute (LongTermNZ, LivingStandardsNZ and TacklingPovertyNZ) as well as being the workshop manager of our 2014 workshop LocalNZ. As project manager and research analyst, Hannah has worked on many of the Institute’s outputs, and she also managed the Institute while I was on my ten-week sabbatical earlier this year.
I will miss Hannah a great deal. She is extremely calm under pressure and has a natural instinct about how to consider and mange complex issues. She is very in touch with her values and rates integrity highly. Hannah is a natural leader and will be someone to watch. Although we are all sad to see her leave, we know we have been fortunate to work with her and wish her well with her endeavours … and look forward to reading her book!
