Kathy McLeish

Kathy McLeish is a senior journalist and producer with the ABC. Currently working in the role of Supervising Producer at the ABC's top-rating 'Back Roads' program, she's reported and produced across a wide range of ABC programs over the years including 7.30 Qld and Stateline, Australian Story, 7.30, Landline, ABC TV and radio News and current affairs and has won a range of significant awards for her work.

As a reporter, she’s covered assignments ranging from the Nauru detention centre riots, the last Mentoring Taskforce handover in Afghanistan, Queensland’s major natural disasters, has trekked in the Simpson desert after floods and been one of the few lucky people to have seen a night parrot in the wild. She was the ABC’s senior state current affairs reporter for Queensland for 16-years and has also held rounds in Science & Technology, Child protection and Social Issues.

Kathy was named Queensland Journalist of the Year and Investigative journalist of the year for her series exposing devastating mismanagement of the state’s youth mental health services, which triggered a $16 million-dollar inquiry and $60 million-dollar restructure of youth mental health services in Queensland.

She's a Board Director of Women in Media Australia, was inaugural Co-Chair of the national organisation, and the founding convenor of Women in Media, Queensland.

She's also a Trustee on the Media Safety and Solidarity Fund, which provides assistance to journalists in danger around the world.

In 2022, she was awarded Zonta’s ‘Advancement of Women Award’ for her work in the field of increasing gender equality for women working in, and represented by, the media.