Working together for a world of hope and possibilities

 A world of hope and possibilities - especially for children and young people

To enable people to work, learn, and create together as they imagine and shape a better world

In today's world, it's easy for the personal, local, and global challenges we face to feel too big or too difficult to solve.  But when we work, learn and create together, we can find new ways forward that look beyond the way things are or seem to have always been to create stronger practices, services, systems and societies. 

As a small girl, Myriadic Horizons Principal Consultant and Founder Katie Kaufmann shadowed her father on his ward rounds at the Royal Children's Hospital on Saturday mornings.  When she was 6 or 7, it dawned on her:  different children have very different life experiences, with different strengths, opportunities and challenges.  This was accompanied by a realisation that although almost everyone wanted children to thrive, services weren't always set up to support this.  Katie began to wonder:  how can we create the practices, services, systems and societies that enable children, young people, and those that support them to thrive?   

This question has been the golden thread guiding Katie's work and learning.  Over a diverse career spanning more than 25 years, Katie has been an executive, medical doctor, public health researcher, teacher, analyst, medical receptionist, program director, strategist, and designer.  She has worked and consulted at organisations including the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Royal Children's Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Goulburn Valley Health, Sydney Lifehouse Cancer Centre, Our Place (Mahogony Rise Child and Family Centre), Goodstart Early Learning, Coaxial Foundation, and Bain and Company.  This has seen her in frontline service roles, codesigning with communities, transforming organisations, uplifting capacity, mobilising knowledge, and driving systems change in metropolitan, regional, remote and global settings.

Along the way, Katie has complemented her practical experience with ongoing academic study.  She holds a Master of Teaching from Macquarie University, and a Master of Public Health (Health Economics), Bachelor of Arts (Chinese), Bachelor of Medical Science, and Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (Honours) all from the University of Melbourne.  She is currently in her final semester of a Master of Design Futures at RMIT University.  These studies have given her a depth of understanding of the philosophy, theory and evidence that underpins her work.

As a mother of two incredible teenage girls, Katie also has significant lived experience of navigating various educational, health and wellbeing services and systems.  This experience infuses her approach to work, making her a compassionate and careful listener who understand the central role authentic relationships play in generating lasting change.

Together, these professional and personal experiences gave shape to Myradic Horizons, a boutique consultancy focused on enabling people to work, learn and create together as they imagine and shape a world of hope and possibilities.

Myriadic Horizons comes from:

Myriad = numerous; countless; varied; 10,000

Kaleidoscopic = brightly coloured and everchanging; made up of beautiful and diverse shapes

Horizons = the furthest we can see; the edges of what is possible

Together, they mean "countless beautiful and evolving possibilities for the future" - or, a world of hope and possibilities.