Ardern Takes Public Health Role At Sydney University

Jacinda Ardern begins teaching at the University of Sydney this month, taking on lectures, masterclasses and mentoring duties through the school of public health. The university said the appointment is not a full-time teaching position. Her work will cover empathetic leadership, social cohesion, civic trust, and approaches to global health challenges with an emphasis on equity, inclusion and wellbeing.

Ardern moved to Sydney earlier this year with her husband, Clarke Gayford, and daughter, Neve. They bought a property in the city's northern beaches for $5.3 million.

Ardern left politics in January 2023 after more than five years as prime minister and Labour party leader. She had taken office in 2017 at age 37, becoming the world's youngest-serving female leader, and later became the second world leader to give birth while in office. Her tenure included the Christchurch terrorist attack, the Whakaari volcanic eruption and the Covid pandemic.

Since leaving office she has held fellowships at Harvard University on public leadership and technology governance. She published a memoir, A Different Kind of Power, in 2025.

In an ABC Conversations interview in July, Ardern said she believed demand for empathetic leadership persists even as many world leaders project a "dominant style." She said research on voters who support parties on the fringes of the mainstream shows most "are often not voting for the ideology - they're just voting against the status quo because they don't think it serves them any more."

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott said Ardern's leadership showed "empathy and resolve do not compete with one another; each can strengthen the other." Ardern said she has focused on questions of leadership since leaving office, and on how to support the kind of leadership needed for global challenges.