The hey!dhd story

Kathleen began her professional life as a consultant in the finance industry.  After a few years, she began the journey to become a secondary school teacher, teaching in the business, economics and legal studies space.  Kathleen then extended her teaching life to work with adults as a workplace trainer and instructional designer.  She then moved into the business systems improvement space as a Change Manager and a Project Manager, working with clients such as Virgin Australia, Telstra and the Department of Immigration.

About 5 years ago, Kathleen returned to teaching, working in the diversity space, specialising in working with neurodivergent students, supporting them as they develop the executive function skills that they need to be successful in learning and in life.  She also returned to full time study.  Now, having completed a Master of Teaching, Kathleen now plans to begin her PhD journey.

Some people suggest that Kathleen needs a nap (including Kathleen!)... but instead she created hey!dhd.

Kathleen began her neurodivergent journey in 2021. While exploring (hyperfocusing...) on the possibility of one of her children having ADHD, Kathleen became aware of the hereditary nature of neurodiversity.  This led to Kathleen investigating and confirming an ADHD (combined type) diagnosis in 2021.  

As she settled into her new ADHD identity, Kathleen started to question whether ADHD was the whole story.  She started exploring the possibility of being autistic, and in 2023 was diagnosed as Autistic (Level 2).

Kathleen's special interests include neurodiversity, feminism and education - with a sprinkle of sociology to flavour the intersection of all three!  She is also a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise, in particular Star Wars lego.  

Kathleen identifies as an autistic ADHD'er who is twice exceptional and lives with spatial sequence synaesthesia .