TEAM
We are a team of driven humans who care deeply about creating a positive change for young women's wellbeing. We use our diverse skills to inspire and empower young women.
Fran McEwen
Founder
Fran's purpose in life is to improve the
wellbeing of young women. Shift is her brain child and was inspired by her own teenage
years, previous experience working with
young women and personally knowing the
power of physical activity and empowerment to improve wellbeing.
Fran completed a research paper for her BA
in Sociology in 2015 titled 'Teenage girls lived
experience of physical activity and sport in
Aotearoa' and this, along with attending
Lifehack's Flourishing Fellowship and the U.S
Department of State Global Sports
Mentoring Programme helped her give Shift wings.
Lexy Seedhouse
General Manager
Lexy's background is in international development and community engagement. She has previously managed two NGOs and led development programmes with women and young people in five countries. She came to Aotearoa in 2017, after many years living in Latin America.
Lexy is a feminist, and her passion in life is to create safe and inclusive spaces for womxn to explore their power.
She is a forever-student, and qualified teacher of yoga and meditation. When she's not saluting the sun, Lexy goes to the beach every chance she gets and enjoys finding new ways to move her body.
Vicky Lister
Operations & Special Projects
Vicky has led a number of major community grants programmes supporting culturally, linguistically and faith diverse communities in both Australia and New Zealand. She brings with her a background in event management, community development and monitoring and reporting. She is passionate about the numbers, measuring impacts, and highlighting success through evidence and data.
Vicky believes in the power of community, inclusion and the empowerment of young women.
Catherine Pask
Shift Coordinator – Porirua City
Catherine grew up in Wellington and after 6 years studying, working and travelling overseas has returned to join the Shift team. Catherine hopes to empower young wahine and use this opportunity to focus on a holistic approach to health. She is passionate about physical activity, connecting with others and having fun.
Liv Rundle
Shift Coordinator - Lower Hutt
Liv grew up in the Northern suburbs of Te Whanganui-a-Tara and has been a lover of all things Shift since 2016! She loves creating connections with young people and helping them to grow their confidence and find things they're passionate about.
She loves going out for brunch, travelling and baking!
Greer Forde-MacNaughton
Shift Coordinator - Wellington City
Greer was born in Wellington and loves everything about the city especially the people that live there and all the opportunities to get outdoors. She is passionate about supporting young women to explore physical activity in a safe and supportive environment that allows them to thrive and find an activity they love! An avid fan of sport, travel and Crossfit Greer is excited to be a part of the Shift Wellington Team and help support kōhine to develop a life long love of physical activity and a deeper understanding of hauora.
Rosie Wylie
Shift Coordinator - Upper Hutt
Rosie grew up in Upper Hutt. She loves to connect and hear what's on people's hearts and the things they care about. She hopes to work alongside young women and create spaces of belonging and inclusion where they feel accepted and empowered.
Shontel Tugaga
Shift Coordinator - Upper Hutt
Shontel grew up in Newlands and moved to Upper Hutt three years ago where she found her passion for being a youth worker.
She is passionate about young people - realising their strengths, purpose and passions. Shontel loves to hear what young people are passionate about and then create a space where they can make this become a reality.
Paige Bellamore
Shift Coordinator - Kapiti
I am so excited to join the shift family
I grew up on the Kapiti coast and love the chilled lifestyle it has to offer.
I love having this opportunity in this role as I am able to give back to my community, I have a background in youth work and I feel passionate about supporting youth to achieve their goals and live a happy & healthy life style.
I love all things yummie, spending time with my family and I am always up for a getaway adventure.
Ella Brown
Shift Coordinator - Wellington City
Ella is a born and bred Wellingtonian and after 5 years abroad studying, working and travelling she has returned to her home city jumping into the coordinator role here at Shift. Ella feels strongly about giving back to her community, helping to motivate and inspire our young fearless wahine. She is passionate about being active and strongly believes in the positive connection between physical and mental health. A lover of sport, trying new things, being social and having fun, she wants to help young people realise their potential and find something they love so they can feel glowing from the inside-out.
Kata Ngatai
Shift Coordinator - Wairarapa
Ngā mihi ki a tātou,
Tenei he uri nō Ngati Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui me ngā moutere o Rarotonga, e mihi ake nei. I tipu ake ki Porirua, Poneke engari ko te Wairarapa taku kainga inaianei. Ko Kata taku ingoa.
Kia ora, I’m Kata. I was born in Porirua, however grew up in the Wairarapa which I now call home. I love to chill, hang out and tag along on young people’s journeys - which allows me to support them with any challenges they may face. I am passionate about physical activity, sport and kapa haka. I’m excited to be part of the Shift Wairarapa whānau and codesign great opportunities alongside young women!
Ali Todd
Shift Coordinator - Wairarapa
Ali is excited to be a Shift Coordinator! To be able to co-design with young women to create a community of strong supportive kōhine who feel safe being who they are is phenomenal! Not only does she love to participate, compete and coach, she has always been drawn to organise and manage events. She is the eldest of seven girls, where throughout their upbringing were all lucky enough to have been supported and encouraged to be involved to be active and seek out opportunities to connect with others. The teamwork, friendships, and the lift physical activity gives has been vital in making her who she is.
OUR BOARD
The Shift Foundation Charitable Trust was established in 2016 and is governed by a strong, passionate and diverse Board. Whilst they each bring unique skills to the table they are connected through their shared passion of
making a difference, empowering women and girls to lead and a love of movement.
Robyn Cockburn
Chairperson
Robyn is a recognised thought leader and strategic developer. Running her own company, Lumin, Robyn has 30 years’ experience as a researcher, strategist, facilitator and educator in the sport, arts, education and recreation sectors. She uses creative and people-centered approaches
to work at national, local and community levels.
She is an agent of change, enabling girls and women to participate in the activities of their choice, and blazing a trail for women as leaders and governors.
Gina Rembe-Stevens
Trustee
Gina has spent the last decade working and volunteering in social impact initiatives and systems interventions in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She knows first hand the value of physical activity and time spent outdoors, and the benefits they bring to social, physical and mental wellbeing. Gina is a keen volleyball player, Wellington trail runner and some-time swimmer. When she is not supporting Shift, Gina is a mother of one, and works a Wellington-based tech social enterprise focusing on diversity in the tech industry. Prior to this, she worked on Lifehack, a mental health system intervention focused on design, technology, social entrepreneurship and wellbeing where she built her experience is in prototyping new initiatives and programmes
Astuti Balram
Trustee
Astuti is a passionate change leader focused on improved health & wellbeing. She brings her positive energy, relationship management, excellent collaboration, strategic planning and enthusiasm to everything she does. Her experience in the health sector has included working in the community and hospital settings where she has practiced as a pharmacist, health service planner and strategic system designer. Through this, she has developed a holistic view of wellness and a deep appreciation of the need to support people early in their life journey. Her Indo-Fijian background and experiences growing up in a number of different countries has provided her with a rich experience in cultural diversity. Astuti is also a mother of two, who provide her with additional motivation to give back to the community and be part of a movement to improve wellness for young people.
Maddi McLean
Trustee
Maddi is an ambitious young leader with a curious and reflective mind. She has a love of physical activity and the outdoors, and a passion for enabling young women to realise their full potential. Maddi has gained valuable experience, a broad skill-set and a unique perspective of the sport and active recreation sector through placements in government, national and regional organisations as part of the Sport NZ Graduate Programme.
She enjoys challenging herself and seeking out opportunities for personal development, as well as engaging with and giving back to her community.
Julian Todd
Trustee
Julian has spent the last 28 years working to help others get all they can out of being physically active. Having been mad about being physically active all his life he is a firm believer of the power of just having fun, with your friends, outdoors, on you own, or with the dog. Having worked in local and central government, not-for profit, and commercial organisations he is committed to challenging the norm, breaking down barriers, and championing innovation.
He is a father of three children, two of whom are young women, and who provide him with huge motivation to see all young women do exactly what it is they want to do in every part of their lives.
Leone Vito-Toleafoa
Trustee
Leone is an advocate for young women and promotes a strong sense of self-identity around Māori and Pacific language and pride in cultural heritage. Mental health and wellbeing are important to Leone to empower and uplift all young wahine toa of NZ to reach success and their full potential.
Leone has strong commercial expertise in partnerships, marketing, sponsorship and events.
She has spent over 10 years working in the environmental and renewables industry and then switched to the media industry specializing in multimedia for NZ Pacific audiences, across the Pacific regions and Pacific audiences globally.
She is married with 2 daughters which inspires her to help create safe environments and support spaces for our up and coming young women.
Leone is passionate and has a heart to serve communities and our young women with purpose to achieve long term positive outcomes.
Rachel Knight
Trustee
Rachel makes sense of complex challenges and works alongside communities to design a better world. She has led social innovation projects across Aotearoa and Australia, ranging from reducing homelessness in Tāmaki Makaurau to helping more tamariki play across the motu. As a long-term friend of Shift, Rachel now brings her strategic thinking and creative problem-solving skills to help sustain and grow Shift's impact. Rachel has Ngāi Tahu and Pākehā whakapapa, and loves spending time outside on her bike or in the water to recharge.
Jake Downing
Trustee
Jake brings an international perspective to Shift - he has been lucky enough to work in three different continents, including governance and board experience both in New Zealand and the Falkland Islands.
His career in the tourism industry encompasses all aspects of strategy and management: from sales and marketing, to operational delivery, through to HR. Jake particularly enjoys connecting people and building teams. Leadership and relationships are his speciality!
His greatest passion is the outdoors and physical activity, and he recognises the very important role these play in our mental health. He strongly believes in supporting young people to challenge themselves in a safe environment, enabling them to find their passion and be proud of themselves.