About Us

Members

Dr Nick Baker

Nick Baker has been the General and Community Paediatrician in the Nelson area since 1993. In additions he is a senior lecturer on Community and Child Health for the University of Otago. Nick originally graduated in the United Kingdom and moved to New Zealand in the late eighties.

Nick has been a clinical adviser to the Ministry of Health and on a number of Technical Advisory groups and Committees. He is an active member of various professional groups including elected President of the Paediatric Society of New Zealand for two terms.

Nick’s professional areas of interest are preventive healthcare, child health policy and administrative structures, community involvement in health, training health professionals, developing educational resources for the general public, information technology, advocacy for children and youth, the impact of physical environments on health, paediatric infectious diseases, health service audit and strategy.

Photo of Prof. Barry Taylor.

Prof. Barry Taylor

Professor Barry Taylor has been involved in the review of deaths of children in the Otago region for the last 18 years. His research has included work on understanding sudden unexpected deaths in infancy. He has also been involved with Parent groups (SIDS Otago) and has personally become involved with many families who have suffered in these tragedies. He is a practising Paediatrician and Academic Head of the Department of Women's and Children's Health at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago.

Photo of Dr Marie Connolly.

Dr Marie Connolly

Dr Marie Connolly is Chief Social Worker for the Department of Child Youth & Family Services. Before this appointment Dr Connolly was an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Canterbury and also the Director of a leading edge research institution, the Te Awatea Violence Research Centre. She started her career as a social worker with the Department of Social Welfare, spending 13 years with the organisation prior to taking up a senior lecturer position with the University of Canterbury. An international expert in child welfare, Dr Connolly has also worked as a consultant to governments, both here and overseas.

Photo of Dr Russell Franklin.

Dr Russell Franklin

Russell trained in Paediatrics and Child Health in Dunedin, Melbourne and London, subsequently practising and teaching in Perth, Melbourne and Wellington. Since the early nineties he has worked as an analyst, consultant and adviser across a broad spectrum of health service and health policy developments. In Child Health his particular interests are universal well child care, and service strategies focussed on illness/injury prevention and early intervention.

Photo of Christopher Morris.

Christopher Morris

Christopher Morris was the Practice Manager of the Otago Youth Wellness Centre, a community based support service for young people in Dunedin. Prior to emigrating to New Zealand from the UK in 1998, Christopher's social work practice included child protection and probation work. He is a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers and provides clinical supervision.

Photo of Eru George.

Mr Eru George

Eru is Pou Herenga with Lakes District Health Board (LDHB), a position he has held since the establishment of the District Health Boards in 2000. He provides high level mana whenua advice to the board, CEO, executive, management and staff of Rotorua Hospital. He was responsible for the establishment of two iwi governance groups in their area and continues to provide them with health information and updates within the sector. He actively promotes health initiatives at iwi, hapu and marae level to ensure dissemination of information is flowing. He has created strong networks in the health sector and is a member of several other national, regional and local health initiatives and committees. He works closely with the health providers in LDHB. His iwi affiliations are Te Arawa, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Awa.

Photo of Dr Liz Craig.

Dr Liz Craig

Liz Craig is a Public Health Physician with an interest in Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology. She is currently the Director of the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service, a joint venture between the Paediatric Society of New Zealand and the University of Auckland (Auckland Uniservices). She has recently completed a PhD exploring the socioeconomic determinants of adverse birth outcome (e.g. preterm birth, stillbirth) in New Zealand. In addition to the provision of regional child and youth health reports, she has also recently been involved in a project to develop an indicator framework for monitoring the health and wellbeing of New Zealand children and young people.

Photo of Riana Manuel.

Riana Manuel

Ko Moehau Kei Waho
Ko Te Aroha Kei Roto
Hauraki Te Whenua
Tikapa te Moana
Marutuahu te Tāngata
Tihei Mauri Ora

Riana is currently the General Manager Māori Health at Waikato DHB. This follows from her previous role as Clinical Nurse Director Māori also at Waikato DHB. Riana has a Bachelor of Nursing and a Postgraduate Diploma in Child, Family & Community Health. Currently she is in her second year of the Post Graduate Diploma of Management studies at Waikato University. She has clinical experience both in the secondary sector and also in the primary sector having worked for a Māori provider organisation for 6 years. Riana has been a member a number of regional steering groups and currently is the Chairperson for the Waikato HEHA (Healthy Eating and Healthy Action) steering group.

With a passion for Māori health and wellbeing and a particular focus and commitment to child health, Riana looked forward to participating as a member of the National Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee.

Mauri Ora

Photo of Anganette Hall.

Anganette Hall

Anganette is a Paediatrician specialising in Adolescent Medicine. She recently returned from Toronto to take up a position as an Adolescent Medicine Specialist at Hutt Valley DHB and VIBE (a community youth health clinic).

Anganette enjoys teaching and is a senior clinical lecturer in Paediatrics for the Wellington School of Medicine, University of Otago. She is an active member of various professional groups including the New Zealand Association of Adolescent Health and Development, and a founding member of the Society for Youth Health Professionals Aotearoa New Zealand. She has presented papers and workshops at international and national youth health conferences and is passionate about ensuring that all health professionals understand and use strength-based approaches and have a good understanding of positive youth development in the practice of clinical medicine.

Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee

Te Rōpū Arotake Auau Mate o te Hunga Tamariki, Taiohi