Kay Sneddon
Dr Kay Sneddon brings a wealth of international experience and a desire to help students succeed to NMIT.
She has worked for the Thailand government, a London university, and a Canadian consultancy firm in a range of research and environmental management roles.
Prior to moving to New Zealand with her Kiwi husband in 2007, she was the environmental performance project coordinator for the Greater Mekong Subregion at the Asian Development Bank in Bangkok.
She has a BSc in Marine Science from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and a MSc in Water Pollution Control and PhD in Air Quality Management from Middlesex University in England.
Dr Sneddon has been a tutor in NMIT’s Master of Applied Management programme since the start of 2020.
She says her scientific background has taught her to think logically and systematically. But her interactive teaching style encourages students to look beyond the textbooks and at the bigger picture.
“Our students will obtain useful skills in research, critical thinking and project planning. I can assure you that that knowledge is not just for textbooks but can be applied in the real world, especially in their future careers,” Dr Sneddon says.
“The students not only obtain a Master’s degree at the end or their journey, but also equip themselves with necessary and useful skills and a mindset that will enable them to be successful in anything they want to achieve. Good education should not only teach you to be effective in a given field. It should teach you the skills to be effective in any field.”
Having lived most of her life in Bangkok, Thailand, and studied abroad in England, Dr Sneddon understands the challenges facing international students and the importance of bridging cultural gaps in education.
“Working with people from culturally- and academically-diverse backgrounds over the years has taught me how we can cooperate despite language and cultural barriers. It is about accepting and respecting each other despite the differences.”
In 2015, Dr Sneddon received a Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero Award for her work managing the Sukita Project, which aims to preserve the art and handicrafts of refugee and migrant cultures and promote these within the communities in which they live.
