Rachel O'Connor

Rachel O'Connor is the current CEO at English Language Partners NZ. Prior to their current position, they served as the Lead Advisor to the Race Relations Commissioner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission from November 2021 to August 2022. Before that, they were the General Manager Migration at the New Zealand Red Cross from July 2017 to November 2021, overseeing programs such as Pathways to Settlement, Pathways to Employment, Refugee Trauma Recovery, and Restoring Family Links. From August 2015 to July 2017, they served as National Programmes Development Manager at the Red Cross. Prior to that, they were the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Humanitarian Services Manager from July 2014 to August 2015. In addition to their work in the humanitarian sector, Rachel has also been involved in media and communications, having worked as an op-ed writer for NOTED.co.nz in January 2017 and as a presenter for Tedx Ruakura in June 2015. Rachel has also served on the board of FreeFM from February 2014 to July 2015.

Rachel O'Connor has a Masters of Migration Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, where they specialized in forced migration and refugee resettlement. Rachel also has a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University of Wellington, and a Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychology from The Open Polytechnic of NZ. Additionally, Rachel has a Certificate of Supervisory Management from WelTec and has completed a Human Rights - Refugee paper from Unitec. Rachel also has a Social Enterprise paper from The University of Waikato, and a Change Management paper from Massey University. Lastly, Rachel has certification in Pre Hospital Emergency Care from NZ Red Cross, as well as CIMS2 - Coordinated Incident Mangement Systems Level 2 certification from NZ Red Cross.