Karen Vaughan

Karen is a Director of Hummingbird Effect where she is a mediator and education consultant. Karen provides mediation for individuals and families, and restorative facilitation, mediation and conflict coaching for teams, Boards and organisations. She also facilitates eldercare planning for whānau and family groups.

Dignity and mana are the foundation of Karen’s approach. She is focused on helping clients identify their priorities and make their own decisions. Karen tailors mediation to clients’ aspirations – whether it’s about resolving a new or long-standing dispute, building a parenting plan, healing from harm, or mending important relationships. Karen works with people from all walks of life and cultures, and she is well-versed in tikanga-led approaches. She can also help clients build longer-term skills and resilience for conflict engagement. Karen works in-person and online.

Karen has been fascinated by the learning potential in everyday life ever since she could hold a crayon. She brings a unique background to conflict resolution from 25+ years of senior roles and team leadership. Former roles include: Director on the Board of the Open Polytechnic; Head of Stakeholder Relations at the Royal New Zealand College of GPs; and Chief Researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Karen’s real-world research has taken her to diverse settings – aged care centres, army barracks, medical clinics, schools, construction sites, and prisons – where she has interviewed more than 1000 people about their lives. She been widely published on youth pathways and apprenticeship, and advised on numerous high-profile education initiatives. Most recently she co-wrote the national ‘how-to’ guides for skill standards in construction and infrastructure, and co-led the development of several restorative engagement schemes. Karen holds several other roles: mediator for Victoria University’s Employee Assistance & Resolution Service; Community Representative to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; and member of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa’s Competence Authority.