Ms Sandy Thompson, of Auckland, ONZM for services to governance, education and children
Ms Sandy Thompson led the establishment of the National Association for Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR), and oversaw policy development to extend the childcare subsidy to include school-age children. There are now around 1,200 OSCAR programmes nationally. Ms Thompson was a programme lead for the Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management at UNITEC, and has mentored numerous national non-profit organisations. She co-founded LEAD, the Centre for Not-for-Profit Governance and Leadership, and has served as Chair of ECPAT Child Alert Trust New Zealand, and Co-Chair of Hui E! Community Aotearoa. She has been the Pacific Regional Representative for ECPAT International and has worked with national and international organisations regarding the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children, and she shared her expertise at the 2018 International Summit on Child Protection in Travel and Tourism in Colombia.