The daughter of a holocaust survivor, Kathy is a self-professed learning-junkie who must have drunk the spirit of volunteerism with her mother’s milk.

Originally a secondary Maths/English teacher who spent most of her teaching career in North Queensland working with Aboriginal and Islander adolescents, Kathy has spent the better part of her professional life working in the fields of educational management and fundraising. She now runs a charity as a volunteer to make a difference to Victorian women and children fleeing extreme violence in Victoria.

A six-time breast cancer survivor, Kathy has been a passionate presenter advocating for breast cancer research and specialised in supporting young single mums facing their breast cancer journey. She had the sad privilege of sitting with several such women during their last hours and minutes.

Kathy is passionate about her involvement in inter- and intra-faith work based on her conviction that, as one human family, it is possible to produce something good for the whole of humanity when we’re respectfully united in and through our diversities. To that end, Kathy is an active participant in the school tour teams in few synagogues, at the Jewish Museum of Australia and with the Jewish Christian Muslim Association.

Kathy is highly involved in her religious community having been President of Temple Beth Israel. Kathy has been the Chair of the Education Committee and the Secretary of Progressive Judaism Victoria and now serves as the Movement’s Vice President. Kathy also serves on the small team of volunteers who prepare the dead for burial. For her ongoing commitment to Melbourne’s Jewish Community over several decades, Kathy was recently recognised with the prestigious Vatik Award.

On Australia Day 2011, Kathy was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her work in the area of domestic violence and also for her work in the Jewish community and, in October 2015, Kathy was honoured with the prestigious Ron Castan Humanitarian Award for lifetime achievement. Late in 2023 The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International recognised Kathy as a Paul Harris Fellow in appreciation of the tangible and significant assistance she has given for the furtherment of better understanding an friendly relations among people so the world.

And, in 2020, not only did Pro Bono Australia name Kathy as one of the the top 25 influential people in the Australian social sector in 2019, but Keep Victoria Beautiful named impact as the best community Social Well-Being program of the year.

Kathy is the very proud mum of three adult children and the adoring Safti (grandmother) of two boys and one little girl.