Empathy in Action: ConneXu’s New Organisational Quality Lead

ConneXu’s new Organisational Quality Lead Alicia Lewis has spent a lifetime showing empathy and caring towards others.

Growing up in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada (which fun fact, is a town famous for its dinosaurs), Alicia’s best friend had a sister with cerebral palsy, who was non-verbal and used a wheelchair.

“It got to the point where her mom was finding it too difficult to care for her by herself…there weren’t any other suitable places for her in our town, so they ended up taking Erin to an elderly care home,” she says.

“My friend and I would go there and visit Erin and take her out at every chance we got. Then, one day, my parents told me that they didn’t want me to go there anymore because ‘it smelled like pee and death’.”

“Even at the age of 13, I knew it was wrong. There was no way I was going to stop going to see her. She was the one that had to live there.”

“Unfortunately, Erin passed away about four years later. But that experience obviously stuck with me. We do not want to perpetuate that or repeat stories like that, just because there is nowhere else to go or people lack understanding and pass judgement.”

Alicia went on to study a Bachelor of Social Work and worked in Canada with vulnerable children and youth, including The Blackfoot (indigenous peoples of the Northern Plains in Alberta) and with programmes connecting young people who faced barriers within their community.

In her late-20’s and seeking adventure, Alicia made plans to travel to New Zealand on a working holiday with two other friends, as social workers were on Immigration New Zealand’s essential skills list at the time.

“Things changed and both friends backed out, but I had already taken steps to come to New Zealand, so I decided to trust the universe and come alone,” she recalls.

She found a flat in Hamilton (and met her now husband Michael who was also living there as well) and started working with a disability provider in Hamilton.

“I did a few different jobs there, including service delivery, managing enquiries and referrals, spent some time in an outcomes-focused role and in resource creation. I was managing 30 staff who worked with 60 disabled people in community support.”

Fast forward to 2025 and Alicia has been working in the New Zealand Disability sector for more than 13 years. In that time she married Michael and together they share a 9-year-old son and a dog called Coco.

Wanting a new challenge and an opportunity for career growth, Alicia took on the role of Quality Lead at ConneXu in September 2025.

When asked to describe what a Quality Lead does, Alicia sums it up by saying it’s about ‘measuring our best’.

“At the moment I’m focused on doing quality checks, which involves going into homes and talking to partners and ConneXu Team members. I’m looking at how things are being managed at the houses, making sure we’re meeting Nga Parewa standards and that we’re doing our best,” she says.

“It’s a combination of measuring if we’re doing our best and putting things in place from a compliance perspective as well,” she says.

“For example, doing our best is looking at things like whether people have choice and control with the food they eat, with the places they go, with the people they see and so on. Then, from a compliance angle, it might be looking at more tangible things like whether there are fire extinguishers and we’re complying with national health and safety standards.”

“From there I feedback to the team, making recommendations for how we can improve lives, set actions and timeframes for compliance, and discuss innovative things and learnings we can share elsewhere.”

Alicia says it’s a work in progress and things are in the pilot stage, but ultimately a culture of continual improvement underpins her work.

“There is a desire to do things better and the people here genuinely care about people.”