THINK HAUORA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Manager, Knowledge & Insights
Job Titles:
- Acting GM, Bureau Services
Chris has over 20 years' experience within the New Zealand Health and the Emergency Services sector, leading operational management, planning and support of ambulance and paramedical services which includes working as a frontline Registered Paramedic.
Chris also draws his experience from having worked within Local Government Emergency Management agencies that developed community resilience for Auckland City while working in partnership with emergency services and community-based NGOs.
Chris has responded to, and supported local and national natural hazard events and major incidents including Earthquake, Tornado and Severe Weather events, Lifeline utility failures, Biosecurity and Mass Casualty incidents.
Chris joined THINK Hauora in 2019 as the Emergency & Risk Manager and has responsibilities for;
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive of Kauri HealthCare
Craig is Chief Executive of Kauri HealthCare, a family health centre in Palmerston North that cares for about 20,000 people. Craig has worked in primary health care in the MidCentral district for 20 years and previously held executive roles at the DHB. He has a lifelong commitment to addressing equity issues. He has been a long-term proponent of collaborative, organised and planned primary health care.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chair
- Board Member of MidCentral District Health Board
- Chief Executive Officer of Tanenuiarangi Manawatu Incorporated Roopu
Danielle Harris is the Chief Executive Officer of Tanenuiarangi Manawatu Incorporated Roopu, the Iwi Authority for Rangitaane o Manawatu. This includes their health and social service arm Best Care (Whakapai Hauora) Charitable Trust and their communication arm Kia Ora FM 89.9. Danielle was also the Principal Negotiator for Rangitane o Manawatu Treaty of Waitangi Claims.
Danielle holds a Bachelor of Law, a Post Graduate Diploma In Business and Administration and a Certificate In Company Direction.
Danielle has been a Board member of MidCentral District Health Board also serving on their CPHAC, HAC and Audit Committees and UCOL. Danielle is presently the Chair of Te Tihi o Ruahine Whanau Ora Alliance,Te Ohu Auahi Mutunga(Smoking Cessation Alliance) and Rangitaane o Manawatu Settlement Trust.
Danielle is committed to contributing to improving the health and wellbeing of our community with a strong focus in seeing health gains for Maori in our community.
Debbie has been an active contributor to the local and national agenda for development of both primary health care nursing and evolving models of care.
Scott Ambridge, (Dip Bus Admin, Dip Qual Mngt, NZCS) has 20 years' experience in operations and general management, holding senior positions in the public and private sector across a range of manufacturing and service organisations. For the last five years he has been General Manager of Enable New Zealand where he has overseen significant growth whilst promoting a strong culture of person-centred practice, partnership and innovation. He is committed to ensuring people are supported to live independently, have choices and live safely within their communities, and it is these principles that guides the decisions he makes and the ethos he brings to any organisation. He has recently been appointed to the role of Operations Executive for Mental health and Addictions services after working on secondment for the last six months and looks forwards to working across the sector to improve the lives of people who experience mental health illness and distress.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Director and General Practitioner at Kauri HealthCare
Anna Skinner is currently Clinical Director and General Practitioner at Kauri HealthCare. She has been working in General Practice in the Midcentral region since 2003, initially in Tararua where she was a director on the Tararua PHO Board from 2004.
Nationally Anna sat on the Rural GP Network Executive from 2007-2009, advocating for access to excellent health care in rural communities. More recently Anna has been a primary care representative on the Maternity Quality and Safety Governance Group at Midcentral and has joined the Child Health / Tamariki Ora District Group.
Anna is passionate about high quality patient care, reducing inequities in health and allowing people to reach optimal wellbeing and live lives that enrich their families and communities. Primary Care is a rich work environment that engages with people at all stages of the lifespan. With the advent of IFHCs a unique opportunity has arisen to create functional multi-disciplinary teams that allow patients to access all the resources required to support their health and wellbeing needs in one setting where information is accessible to all members of the health team.
At Kauri HealthCare over the last 3 years Anna has collaborated on projects increasing training opportunities for junior doctors and for nurses wanting to extend their scope and become prescribers or Nurse Practitioners. She has worked to build a cohesive team of health professionals using innovative models of care to meet the health needs of the Palmerston North community into the future.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- General Practitioner in Feilding
Bruce has been a General Practitioner in Feilding for over 30 years. He has wide interests in general practice including minor surgery, vasectomies, geriatric medicine and palliative care.
Continuing his palliative care interest, Bruce worked as a general practice representative on the initial working party which lead to the Palliative Care Partnership (PCP) initiative. He was the lead author for the NZMA publication reporting the success of the PCP NZMJ 22 Sept 2006 Vol 119 No 1242 and continues to work on the PCP management group. Bruce has been involved with other PCP management group members in numerous presentations of the PCP to DHB and health care groups in New Zealand.
Bruce was the founding Chairman of the Manawatu Independent Practitioner Association (MIPA), holding this position for six years. He also served as a general practice representative on the Manawatu Primary Health Organisation (PHO) establishment committee and served on the interim Manawatu PHO Board.
Bruce was involved in the establishment of the ‘Integrated Family Health Centre' in the Feilding community and is a shareholder Director of the new management company for the IFHC.
Since 2013 he has been a member of the PHO Trust Board and has been the Chairperson of the Board since July 2013.
Since September 2013 he has held the position of ‘Medical Director, Primary Care' for the MidCentral District Health Board - a strategy, planning and support position which also provides clinical oversight to THINK Hauora management.
Outside of medicine Bruce has a keen interest in his family and participates in motorsport as a doctor and competitor in classic car and endurance racing events.
Job Titles:
- Principal Medical Advisor
- Trustee of the THINK Hauora ( Formerly Central PHO ) Board
Nader is a British medical graduate and a practicing GP of more than 16 years, attaining membership of the Royal College of GPs (UK) in 2005. After gaining his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree at the University of Dundee, Nader worked as a GP in Scotland, in diverse urban and rural settings. He took the opportunity to experience New Zealand in 2003, working in Palmerston North Hospital for a year. His love of Aotearoa, its land, people and culture inevitably drew him to settling permanently with his wife in 2010.
As well as clinical practice as a GP, Nader is committed to advancing high quality delivery of care to consumers, Chairing the THINK Hauora Clinical & Digital Governance Committee. His role as Principal Medical Advisor leverages his extensive Primary Care experience to provide leadership across many PHO clinical and business services.
Nader is a Trustee of the THINK Hauora (formerly Central PHO) Board, member of the Senior Leadership Team, MidCentral DHB's Clinical and Pharmacy Boards, Clinical Council and Digital & Data Information Governance Group.
His membership of local, regional and national Boards has allowed Nader to cultivate a rich skill set in clinical, IT and business governance. Nader has a lifelong interest in technology that drives his pursuit of ICT to enhance people's health and empower their lives. In 2019, in recognition of his Digital Health expertise, he was appointed as the NZ Primary Care representative to the Ministry's Health Information Standard's Organisation (HISO).
Job Titles:
- Medical Advisor Acute Care
Dr Hayter has been a General Practitioner since 1990. He trained in Australia and spent 16 years working in a small Rural Community in South Australia. Dr Hayter is married, and his family has lived in Palmerston North for the last nine years. One of their main interests has been hosting International students in their home for periods of a few days up to three years. Over 80 students have stayed with them to date.
Dr Hayter has worked at The Palms since he arrived in New Zealand, he has been Clinical Director for about seven years and recently became a shareholder and a Director on the Board of the practice. He is also a member of the GreenCross Clinical Advisory Group - which provides clinical support and direction to over 19 practices who are part of the GreenCross group. Dr Hayter has also been a Trustee on the PHO Board for about seven years.
Fiona works as a community pharmacist in Palmerston North and is passionate about innovative new services and roles for Pharmacists. After gaining her Bachelor of Pharmacy from Otago University, Fiona moved to Manawatu in 2010. She was elected to the MidCentral Community Pharmacy Group (MCPG) Board from 2014-2018. She has served on the National Board for GirlGuiding New Zealand, representing girls and young women internationally, and held the Board's Advocacy Portfolio for two years. Fiona was the first co-opted Early Career Pharmacist to be appointed to the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) National Executive. She has been one of 12 clinicians on the DHB Clinical Council since 2017.
Gabrielle completed a Diploma in Physiotherapy at Otago Polytechnic in 1984 and commenced work at Palmerston North Hospital in January 1985. She gained a Health Service Management post graduate qualification from Massey University in 2004.
Gabrielle has held numerous leadership roles while working at Palmerston North Hospital. Prior to her appointment to the Executive Director, Allied Health she was the Professional Advisor, Physiotherapy and Coordinator Child Development Service.
Gabrielle is committed to supporting Allied Health at MidCentral Health. She believes in the contribution her Allied Health, Scientific and Technical staff make to the lives of those in the MidCentral District community.
She is the MDHB representative on the Clinical Board.
Gaye has a keen interest in health matters from a community perspective. In particular she has concerns about how members of the public gain health literacy, navigate through the health system and who provides advocacy for those who cannot advocate for themselves.
As a community representative Gaye serves on:
MidCentral DHB Consumer Council
PHO Clinical Board
Arohanui Hospice Clinical Governance Group
and various DHB short term projects when requested
Gaye has been a volunteer at Arohanui Hospice since 2004
Job Titles:
- Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors
Jane has worked in various primary health care roles since 1991 including palliative care, general practice and primary health organisations. Previous experience and knowledge gained in previous roles have included clinical and general facilitation, clinical direction, primary health care nursing, clinical skills, service development, implementation and evaluation, assessor of general practice accreditation, change management, quality improvement, auditing, coaching and mentoring, and governance roles both regionally and nationally.
Jane is passionate about primary health care and sees her role as fostering wider health care teamwork by providing practical and tangible means for achieving this. Being quality focused and always striving to improve the health of the people Jane can offer proven skills and expertise in clinical leadership, clinical service delivery, primary health care service development, implementation and evaluation, and knowledge and linkages into communities within New Zealand.
Jane has been actively involved with Aiming for Excellence and CORNERSTONE general practice accreditation as an assessor and participating in expert advisory groups since 2000. Her current roles include primary health care nurse at Cook Street Health Centre, Palmerston North, member of the MidCentral DHB Clinical Council, board trustee Netball Manawatu, providing consultancy in primary health care settings, transformational leadership coaching and assessing general practices.
Jane is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors (NZ) (CMInstD).
Kelvin Billinghurst joined MidCentral as the Chief Medical Officer in July 2020.
He has worked in South Africa for a number of years in rural hospital medicine & HIV and AIDS before working across Africa primarily for the World Bank.His first exposure to Medical Administration occurred in the private sector in the Middle East.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Strategy and Programmes
- General Manager, Knowledge
Kylie is the General Manager, Knowledge & Insights at THINK Hauora, where she leads data analytics for the network. This function is responsible for delivering valuable information that supports decision-making, quality improvement, planning, research, and primary health care funding.
Kylie is passionate about enabling the use and dissemination of sector-wide knowledge, safe and effective use of data, and working cross-discipline to improve population health.
Kylie has been with THINK Hauora since December 2016. Previously she's held analytics positions in justice, legal, human resources, and tertiary education sectors. She graduated in Human Nutrition and Arts and is committed to innovation for the improvement of health and wellbeing.
Job Titles:
- Executive Officer
- Executive Officer to the CE
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Lorna Love is the Executive Officer to the CE and Board, and has been with the PHO since 2015. Lorna manages the CE's workload, along with assisting with various projects. Lorna is also Secretary to the following:
THINK Hauora Board-ALT
THINK Hauora Financial, Audit, Risk and Health and Safety Committee
Alliance Management Team
Lorna is a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Organisational Management Group and Organisational Development Group.
Job Titles:
- Operations Executive Acute and Elective Specialist Services
Lyn has been in a variety of nursing and management roles over the last 35 years. Since 2009, Lyn has held the role of Operations Director, Hospital Services, MidCentral DHB (MDHB) and most recently the role of Operations Executive Acute and Elective Specialist Services as MDHB moves towards an integrated service model. This role is responsible, in partnership with the Clinical Executive and Professional Leaders, to lead the planning, procurement, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of services to enable the DHB to develop integrated seamless care for our population across and between services. Lyn is an Executive Leadership Team member and an Alliance Leadership member for the DHB.
Job Titles:
- General Manager, Corporate Services
Job Titles:
- General Manager, Clinical Quality
Nicola has been with THINK Hauora since 2014 after working for over 15 years as a Registered Nurse in Medical Oncology, Family Planning and General Practice.
Robyn is a Programme Co-ordinator for Te Rau Puawai Maori Mental Health Workforce Development within the College of Health, Massey University since 2010. The programme was developed by Emeritus Professor Sir Mason Durie in 1999 between Health Workforce New Zealand (formerly Ministry of Health) and Massey University.
Robyn became involved in the health sector in 1996 when she joined Enable New Zealand, then Te Runanga o Raukawa as a Mental Health Support Worker followed onto Public Health and the PHO as a Health Promotion Advisor.
Job Titles:
- General Manager, Connecting Communities
Trissel is passionate about the health and well-being of communities, and she has a strong emphasis on life-long learning, quality improvement and making a real difference.
Her current position is as Director at YOSS (Youth One Stop Shop) since 1996 is where she has put these passions into practice. Alongside this she is the Co-ordinator for Palmy Youth Network since 2012 and have previously held a variety of roles including President of NZ Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development, and a variety of governance and committee positions.