Dr Kate Alexander

Barnardos Australia CEO

Kate Alexander is a respected child protection leader, both nationally and internationally.  Kate was appointed as Barnardos CEO in late 2025. In every position she has held, from junior sexual assault counsellor with NSW Health to the most senior lead practitioner in the largest child protection and out of home care system in Australia, she has stayed true to her values, championing the rights of children to safety, love, culture and belonging. Kate’s award, in 2019, of the NSW Public Service Medal for ‘outstanding public service to family and community services’ is testament to her achievements.

In 2012, Kate was appointed to the role as the first Senior Practitioner for the Department of Communities and Justice, a role she held for 13 years. During this time, Kate led the design and rollout of the NSW Practice Framework, the creation of the Aboriginal Culture in Practice team, and the development of the child death review function which is nationally recognised. Kate has also supported child protection practice in the sector and other Australian states, including leading a project on practice governance for Life Without Barriers in 2025 and a review, Trust in Culture, for the South Australian Government in 2022.

Kate is a Social Worker with a Masters in Couple and Family Therapy. She has recently completed a PHD at Melbourne University with publications in international journals. Her research investigated the attitudes of the child protection workforce toward domestic violence, determined the impact of worker attitudes on their assessment of children’s safety, and found that combining a therapeutic approach for understanding domestic violence with a standard safety assessment, significantly reduced the likelihood of children being removed from their mothers.  In 2010, Kate was awarded a Churchill Fellowship and travelled to the U.K, Norway and the USA researching child protection systems.