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Addressing on the eve of International Women’s Day, The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern shared lessons from her time as prime minister and offered reflections on the empathetic leadership needed by the world. 

Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023, was ��ɫӰ��’s spring 2025 Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Distinguished Visiting Scholar. An advocate for climate action, Arden is a board member of The Earthshot Prize and an Arnhold Distinguished Fellow at Conservation International. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming memoir A Different Kind of Power.

In her Kelly Lecture, she spoke about her path to leadership and the unexpected experience of becoming prime minister at age 37 when the leader of her party resigned shortly before an election. 

“Had you asked me, with the space and time and endless consideration, to run as leader, I would have said no,” Ardern said. “I am living, breathing, and very flawed proof that you underestimate what you are capable of until you are doing it.”

She discussed the considerable challenges that she faced as prime minister, including the COVID-19 pandemic. When it comes to navigating difficult and constantly-evolving situations like the pandemic, Ardern said, it is important for leaders to have the humility to learn collectively.

“I hold a strong view that in times of uncertainty, we must be willing to talk about the information and the data and the evidence we have, but also what we don't have,” she said. “After all, confidence is built as much around trust as it is competency.”

Throughout her address, Ardern emphasized the value of harnessing hope and connection, instead of the divisiveness of fear our world sees so often from political leaders.

“Time and time again, I have encountered moments that demonstrated to me that for the most part, what people seek is not blame but hope,” she said. “That's why in a world of significant challenge, politicians need to make a choice to cast aside fear and blame, and instead to take the risk of a road less traveled by leaders: hope, ambition, and action.”

“Optimism is not naive”

After delivering her lecture, Ardern spoke with U.S. Congresswoman and St. Kate’s alumna Betty McCollum ’87 in a Q&A session, for which attendees submitted questions ahead of the event. The two leaders each spoke about their experience as women in government, and the need to approach the work with confidence.

McCollum said, “Lots of times, when I would go door-knocking, people would say, ‘Well, who’s going to take care of your kids?’” And I go, ‘Well, they have a perfectly fine parental unit at home that can do that.’ We [women] face barriers sometimes even when we know our vote on the floor is equal to our male counterparts'.”

In their conversation, the speakers touched on a range of topics, including imposter syndrome, climate change legislation, and the increasing political polarization around the world. Ardern shared the example of a bill that the New Zealand parliament passed banning military style semi-automatic firearms following a mass shooting at a mosque in 2019.

“I remember being asked by a small group of people who were from the U.S. about this law change we'd made,” she said. “And I tried to convey that it didn't happen just because there were motivated policymakers. It happened because those policymakers felt the heavy expectation of the public.”

In the face of overwhelming challenges, apathy can be seductive, but Ardern reminded the audience that change is still possible — and the public has a vital role to play in making it happen. “The moment that you stop expecting change is the moment that you risk indifference, or at least you risk politicians believing there is indifference for them to act,” she said. “So don't change your expectation.”

At the end of the evening, when asked to recommend a book, Ardern named Alfred Lansing’s Endurance, a longtime favorite of hers. Endurance chronicles Ernest Shackleton’s harrowing expedition to the South Pole, anchored despite life-and-death ordeals by the conviction that optimism is “true moral courage” — a conviction that is just as applicable for today’s political leaders as it was for explorers over a century ago.

“Optimism is not naive,” Ardern said. “It is an act of courage and it is a courageous thing that you have to invest in every single day. But it is the kind of thing that can literally keep you alive.”

��ɫӰ�� the Kelly Lecture

Founded in 2006, the annual Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Visiting Scholars Lecture brings distinguished, nationally- and internationally-known scholars to St. Kate’s. Recent speakers have included Isabel Wilkerson, Louise Erdrich, and Toshi Reagon.

Alumna Joan Kelly ’46 created the Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Distinguished Visiting Scholars Lecture in honor of her sister, Bonnie Jean Kelly. A successful businesswoman and Phi Beta Kappa graduate in English, Joan (May 22, 1924–Nov. 2, 2016) attended both high school and college on the St. Catherine campus with her sister, Bonnie Jean, who died while a student at St. Kate's.

The other two programs supported include the Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Faculty Excellence Award and the Bonnie Jean Kelly and Joan Kelly Student Excellence in Writing Award.

Photos by Rebecca Zenefski Slater ’10