On 29 January, MGGS played a significant role in farewelling much-loved alumna, Professor Katie Allen at St Paul’s Cathedral. Our 2026 SEC were ushers, and our Chamber Voices Choir led the singing of the School Anthem.
Dr Toni Meath was one of the speakers at the moving memorial service. Below is the tribute she wrote, and read, on behalf of the School.
Professor Katie Allen (Stephens, 1983)
24.02.66 – 23.12.25
Melbourne Girls Grammar has lost a champion, and we gather today to celebrate Katie’s life. In our School community, Katie was a brave alumna and ally who was a constant. She advocated for girls in education and helped to consolidate a vision of excellence at MGGS that reflected her own brilliant engagement with the world, uplifting girls and caring for our community in a way that was real and positive.
Indeed, across the many communities Katie was a part of throughout her life, there is profound grief and sense of loss and disbelief that someone so brilliant and so committed to advocating for her community is no longer with us.
Katie made her mark early and served her country with excellence. She was a true Grammarian, a very much-loved graduate of Melbourne Girls Grammar. She was ours! We are so very proud of her contribution to the fabric of our School, and to Australia and the world.
Moving from her home in Albury, Katie joined MGGS in 1980 as a boarder in Year 9. She settled into School life, with a keen interest in music, sports and schoolwork. In year 10 Katie held the position of Form Secretary, joined the debating team and was a member of the Music Committee. She excelled at the Goethe Competition and proudly represented Victoria in the 1981 Australian Secondary Schools Water Polo Championships, held in Perth. In Year 11, her focus on her studies saw her receive awards for Excellence in both Mathematics and Greek and Roman Literature. At the end of Yr 11 Katie went on a Classics tour to Italy and Greece organised by the School and it made a huge impression on her – she loved the multidisciplinary nature of studying Classics, beyond Latin alone. She would often turn to Classical philosophy to rationalise difficult decisions in her future career.
In 1983, her final year at school, Katie’s leadership qualities had come to the fore, and she held many roles of responsibility; Mungo House Vice Captain and Swimming Captain, she was on both the Music Committee and the Debating Committee, was a Boarding House Councilor, won the Senior Swim Shield and achieved Grade 8 AMEB in piano. Later in discussing School Katie loved madrigal singing and would play the piano competently for the rest of her life. In her final year of School Katie also received the Wales Maths Competition Award, and already knew medicine was her future although Katie could just as easily have taken up a career in the humanities or law.
What you will have noted from Katie’s amazing school career is that she was a polymath. Her brilliance across many subjects came naturally but was always enhanced by her integrity and self-discipline. In the School records, Katie is described as a brilliant and engaged student, ‘highly motivated to achieve and very well organised’, ambitious, responsible and gifted. This all sounds rosy, however at Speech Night a few years ago Katie spoke about failure and about all the times (at School and in her career) when she put her hand up for things and didn’t achieve them. Her ambition and enthusiasm could overwhelm her ability and situation. With every failure she became more focused. Her honesty and candidness were inspiring.
It is no surprise that Katie turned initially towards medicine, a career that combined many talents, while also allowing her to express her deep care and advocacy for others. These were the traits that underscored her brilliance and revealed a pattern of being compassionately engaged in the world around her.
Katie’s family has over 100 years of affiliation with MGGS. Katie’s mother, Judy Stephens and grandmother Daisy Morris attended MGGS. So did Katie’s sister Penelope, her cousins and her nieces. Sadly, Katie lost her mother at an early age and there are alumnae here today who were dear friends of her mother who stepped in as central figures for Katie throughout her life. Katie’s two daughters Jemima and Arabella attended the School, the fourth generation of women in the family to do so, and so Katie returned as a mother to Merton Hall, invested and engaged in the life of the School. Katie commenced on the MGGS School Council in 2015 and as Chairman led the Council with distinction before stepping down so that she could focus on Politics. She was instrumental in the development, fundraising and implementation of our Artemis Program, a unique internationally recognised program and building dedicated to the health and wellbeing of girls and young women.
Katie was a brilliant mentor and positive role model. She recognised the potential in others and actively supported them to be their best selves. It is difficult to quantify just how many people Katie has mentored as her generosity of spirit and capacity for others was so large. She was an excellent active listener and an experienced and trusted confidante and advisor to many. Katie helped her mentees navigate challenges, develop their skills, set goals, seek opportunities when they arose and build their own personal networks. She used her influence to promote causes especially those of women. Katie was a catalyst, a connector. Several promising medical students reached out to Katie for advice on leaving school and how to get into medicine – she mentored them through the admissions and interview process, and several are now promising young medical students.
Her work with The University of Melbourne’s Pathways to Politics Program for Women was a great passion. Katie encouraged others to take on political leadership in a bold and courageous way. She was instrumental in actively taking those from the program to Canberra and ensuring that they had as much exposure and conversation with political colleagues as possible. Katie wanted more women in politics, and she said openly that there was no greater way for her to serve her country that to represent its people in parliament. Katie’s final flight three months before her death was with ten promising women from Pathways to Politics, taking them to Canberra for two days immersion in the political milieu and giving them real-time guidance on what they saw and heard.
In the words of one of her young mentees, former School Captain and Grammarian, Ahelee…
“I had the extraordinary privilege of receiving Katie’s mentorship over the years. We would meet for coffee, I interned for her in Canberra when she was a Member of Parliament, she would attend my family’s Eid celebration each year. Receiving Katie’s guidance and support as I finished school and started university was truly the greatest gift. She had an unrivalled generosity of spirit – once she took you under her wing, she took it as a personal responsibility to support, nurture and guide you into the person she believed you could be – and in doing so, has helped shaped me into the person I am today.”
Katie was good at so many things, such as she knew quintessentially how to ‘play the ball, not the person’. A true diplomat! She loved the contest of ideas and would thoroughly debate on anything she was passionate about. At MGGS we use a phrase ‘the pleasure of the rigour’. Katie loved that – she totally understood the delight and simple pleasure of doing something challenging and succeeding. Katie was a great consensus builder and I observed her closely in meetings, bringing people with disparate thinking together. She knew how to appeal to a person’s sense of good judgement and could disagree without offending.
Katie could build a formidable team, and I am honoured to be part of ‘Team Katie” when she chose me to be the 12th Principal of MGGS. We shared the same vision, courage, commitment and confidence that we could achieve extraordinary things for MGGS. Last year was a record year of achievement for our School in all metrics!
Katie was a frequent visitor to the School, and we would meet regularly to discuss our Grammarians. She spoke often at Assemblies, both at Morris and Merton Hall, at Speech Night and at School gatherings. As President of the Merton Hall Foundation, she was active in fundraising and ensuring that the Foundation had a contemporary lens. Her love for Melbourne Girls Grammar was palpable!
You can tell much about a School by its silverware. The trophies and awards that are given over time and what is paid attention to, what is treasured. We have two for Katie’s family. The first is the Allen Family Cup also known as The Stephen’s Cup, dedicated in memory of her mother Judy for the much-revered and loved Annual House Instrumental Competition, and the other the Annual Professor Katie Allen Oration Award for Public Speaking. Katie was an exceptional and compelling public speaker, and this Award is perfect in her name. Katie was at our most recent Speech Night to listen to the inaugural recipient deliver her oration on “Why Teachers Matter”.
Katie’s career was marked by exceptional accomplishments, but her family was her greatest joy. Our heartfelt sympathy to her husband Malcolm, and children, Monty, Jemima (OG 2017), Arabella (OG 2019) and Archie, and to her first grandchild and extended family.
At MGGS we create ethical women of action – Katie was exactly that – a fierce, brilliant and engaged advocate for girls and women. Generations of women will live stronger because of her. It is said that one never dies when one’s name is still recalled. In the hallowed halls of Merton Hall, dearest and brilliant Katie you will live forever.
Vale, Katie.
Make a Donation to Remember Katie
Katie’s abiding passion was supporting young people (especially women) to make a difference through their chosen profession, and later in life through politics. Her final trip, two months before her death, while actively on chemotherapy, was to Canberra where she hosted ten women who are interested in pursuing a career in political leadership.
If you would like to honour Katie’s memory, please support the Dr Katie Allen Memorial Fund, which assists Pathways to Politics for Women via this web link
https://giving.unimelb.edu.au/allen