Kerrie Hawkins: The Architect of Connection in a Fractured World 

By Sia Papageorgiou, Co-Founder, Gifted Professionals & Communicators

Some people follow career paths. Others forge them—taking the scenic route, collecting knowledge, questioning systems, and building bridges where none exist. Kerrie Hawkins is the latter—an architect of connection.

Gifted professionals don’t fit neatly into career boxes. They see patterns before others do, chase possibilities others dismiss, and, more often than not, struggle with feeling like too much and not enough at the same time. Kerrie is no exception.

She speaks in layers—thoughts connecting mid-sentence, branching into possibilities, tracing the gaps where things fall through in organisations. Her gift is seeing how everything connects—people, technology, strategy, and communication—and refusing to let inefficiency or short-sightedness win.

Gifted awareness

Q: Because you are a deep thinker, highly intuitive, creative, analytical, and curious, you bring a particularly complex dimension to professional relationships. Is this true for you? 

Kerrie: Yes, absolutely! Without hesitation.

Complexity isn’t always easy to manage. I often find myself filtering thoughts, calibrating responses, and adjusting communication styles to match those around me. It’s a dance—balancing clarity with depth, knowing when to simplify an idea and when to push for nuance.

At times, this ability to see what others don’t feels like both a superpower and a struggle.

I find myself explaining things that seem obvious to me but others don’t see yet. Sometimes, it’s like I’m speaking a different language. The irony? Kerrie listens better than most.

Ask me what was said in a meeting, and I do more than recall it—I’ll parrot it back word-for-word, spotlighting what everyone else missed. For me, listening isn’t passive—it’s an active strategy, one I constantly refine. What’s said, what’s left unsaid, and what’s said but not truly meant—I hear it all.

Professionalism focus

Q: Did you become a professional on purpose, or did your career path open a door into the profession you identify with today?

 Kerrie: I didn’t set out to be an internal communication strategist—I stumbled into it. I started as a graphic designer, but my career path has been anything but linear.

I moved through sales, marketing, and quality management and finally landed in internal communication—the space where all my skills and insights converged. I didn’t realize it at the time, but every step I took built on the last. Each role added a new layer of understanding, allowing me to bridge gaps, connect ideas, and challenge outdated thinking.

I see internal communication as a core function that impacts everything—from culture to operations to leadership alignment. The major challenge is getting people to see it that way too.

The work isn’t just about crafting messages—it’s about architecting connection in organizations where silos, politics, and inefficiencies create barriers. I see myself as constantly evolving, constantly seeking something more—not out of dissatisfaction, but out of a deep need for impact.

I’m at the stage where I want something more portable, less constrained, and more meaningful. The what’s next?question is never far from my mind.

Communication focus

Q: Which of your communication skills do you seem to work on constantly—always learning, always evolving? 

Kerrie:  Listening. Not the surface-level kind, but the deep, intentional kind that captures what’s not being said as much as what is.

I’ve been told I listen differently. I don’t just absorb words—I map them, following the threads of meaning, connecting what’s spoken, implied, and left unsaid.

Teek and Orca. Kerrie Hawkins Shih Tzu’s

The gifted profile in action 

When Kerrie took the Gifted Professionals & Communicators (GPC) completely unscientific assessment, her answers painted a familiar picture—one of depth, complexity, and an unrelenting drive to understand, improve, and connect.

Here are her results and her further thoughts on each:

You experience ‘too muchness’ on many levels because your intelligence is advanced—and so is your emotional, intuitive, spiritual, and creative capacity.

Kerrie: Absolutely. I’ve been told I bring too much energy, too many ideas, and too many thoughts into a room. But for me, it’s not about ‘too muchness’—it’s about making sense of everything at once. I absorb what’s happening around me, which is both a strength and an overload at times.

You leave a job just when you’ve mastered it because you need to learn and practice something new. All of your paths are professional—just different.

Kerrie: Yes! I thrive on learning. Once I’ve solved a problem or mastered a role, I find myself searching for the next challenge. Every career move I’ve made has been about following curiosity and discovering new ways to make an impact.

You engage in professional development your entire career because competency and knowledge advance daily. It’s impossible to practice in your profession with only yesterday’s knowledge.

Kerrie: Lifelong learning isn’t optional. I don’t believe in staying stagnant. I’m always looking for ways to refine my skills, explore new approaches, and evolve with the profession. The world moves fast, and I want to move with it.

You observe or learn as much as you can about the person who will get your message before you start speaking or writing.

Kerrie: Absolutely. Understanding your audience is the foundation of effective communication. Whether I’m writing, presenting, or problem-solving, I always consider how the message will land. What do they need? What are they expecting? And most importantly, how can I make sure they truly understand?

Kerrie’s responses echo a familiar truth among gifted professionals—they don’t just see problems; they see solutions before others even recognize an issue exists.

Credit Kerrie Hawkins

Words to live and laugh by

The power of quotes and rhetoric is part of a gifted person’s thinking. Kerrie found words that explain what she has always felt but never quite articulated. This quote came to her in a letter from her grandmother when Kerri lived abroad.

It is very difficult to know people and I don’t think one can ever really know any but one’s own countrymen. For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they were the city apartment or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives’ tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can’t come to know by hearsay; you can only know them if you have lived them. You can only know them if you are them. And because you cannot know persons of a nation foreign to you except from observation, it is difficult to give them credibility in the pages of a book.—W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge

This passage is more than words—it’s a philosophy. It reminds Kerrie that people aren’t just who they are today. They are their experiences, their histories, their influences. In a world that often oversimplifies people into labels and roles, Kerrie sees depth, complexity, and the intricate layers that shape us all.

In her profession, that perspective makes all the difference.

The gifted professional sees the bigger picture 

Kerrie Hawkins is more than a problem solver. She’s a pattern finder, a strategist, and a translator of complexity. She bridges silos, challenges inefficiency, and amplifies voices that might otherwise be lost in the noise.  And the biggest irony? She’s still searching for her next challenge—because for a mind like hers, the journey is never finished.

If you see the gaps, the overlaps, the flaws in the system—you’re not alone. Kerri and many other Gifted Professionals and Communicators are out there doing the same.

Maybe you are one of them, too.

We’re on a mission to feature stories about professionals who are initiating meaningful conversations with other gifted minds and storytellers—and who they serve.

If you’re curious about how sensitive, creative, intense, multi-potential, professional, ethical, expressive, and clear you are about your intentions, wants, and needs, check your GPC score.

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