It is 25 years since the Dunedin school-leaver answered a newspaper job vacancy advertisement for a junior road safety education position with the Ministry of Transport.
Superintendent Rose says she never dreamed her career would take it where it has, but she is not fazed by the responsibility.
"[Former police commissioner] Rob Robinson used to say there was no such thing as luck, that making the most of life involves a combination of hard work and seizing the opportunities that come along.
"That is how I feel. I really value the opportunities I have had."
She credits her Mosgiel upbringing and her Dunedin education and law enforcement experiences for giving her the tools to succeed.
"Dunedin is a magnificent place. It prepares people for anything."
Supt Rose (47) is married to a former police officer.
She is the daughter of former Wingatui store owners Letitia and the late Bill Young and is back home in Dunedin for a few days to visit her mother.
Educated at St Marys Primary School in Mosgiel and Moreau College in South Dunedin (now part of Kavanagh College), Supt Rose said she did not know what she wanted to do once she left school and began a commerce degree at the University of Otago.
Life as a student ended when she joined the MOT as a traffic officer, although she later completed her degree and a postgraduate diploma in commerce as a mature student.
"The job was everything I wanted. It is still . . . Every day is different."
The MOT and the police merged in 1992 and Supt Rose became a sworn officer.
She worked in Dunedin from 1984 to 1986, in Timaru from 1986 to 1989, and returned to Dunedin until 2000 when a promotion took her to police national headquarters in Wellington.
In 2006, she spent three months as part of New Zealand's peace-keeping forces in the Solomon Islands, and spent several months the following year and again earlier this year attending courses and working alongside front-line officers in England and Scotland.
In March last year, she was appointed roading national manager - the first woman to hold the role.
The job entails overseeing road safety education and enforcement strategies, and liaising with other agencies and police district commanders.
Supt Rose said even after 25 years in law enforcement, she was still passionate about road safety and about reducing the number of deaths and injuries on New Zealand roads.
Road crashes affected so many people that being able to play a part in reducing crashes was rewarding, she said.
"There are about 80 to 100 homicides in New Zealand each year. Even in a good year, four times that number of people are killed on the roads.
"Lives are taken away and lives are ruined. I have a chance to make a difference."
Asked how it was working in a male-dominated police force, Supt Rose said "while it hasn't always been the easiest place to work" over the years, she had never had anything but professionalism and genuine support from male officers when it mattered.
"I can't think of a single officer - male or female - who has not cared about the job they do."
The face of policing was changing and had more of a richness as more women were promoted to inspector level and above, and more officers of both genders and many ethnic backgrounds were recruited, she said.
