Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern (1980 - ) has been the Prime Minister of New Zealand since 2017. After graduating from university in 2001, Ardern began her career in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in the UK as a policy advisor to the British Prime Minister. In 2008, she was elected President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Ardern describes herself as a social democrat, a progressive, a republican and a feminist. She is the world's youngest female head of government, and the youngest ever leader of the Labour Party, having taken office at 37. She defined her campaign as one of “relentless positivity”. Giving birth to a daughter in 2018, Ardern became the world's second elected head of government to give birth while in office. In her address to the UN General Assembly in 2018, she called for immediate attention to the issue of climate change, for the equality of women, and for kindness as the basis for action. She united her country with grace in 2019 after a terrorist massacre of 51 people. She shows her leadership through her congruence and self-awareness, her connectivity, her values clarity, her vision, her positivity and compassion.

And so to each of us as we go from here, we have work to do, but do not leave the job of combatting hate to the government alone. We each hold the power, in our words and in our actions, in our daily acts of kindness.