Mrs Janis (Jan) Ballantyne, of Te Awamutu, MNZM for services to education and the community
Mrs Ballantyne was the Chief Executive Officer of Central Kids Kindergartens, a charitable trust that operates 48 kindergartens and eight full-day childcare centres. She initiated New Zealand’s first peer support programme for kindergarten teachers. She was part of the Equity Funding Working Group that developed a childcare funding system for low income and rural communities and for special-needs children. She started an annual teacher exchange with South Korean early childhood centres and helped draft a strategic plan for early childhood education in Qatar. She has been a voluntary grief counsellor, a member of the South Waikato District Council Community Board, and a Community Trustee on the Maungatautiri Ecological Island Trust.