Co-Lead
Tangata Tiriti

Professor Abraham (BA, PhD; FRSNZ) is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Otago and was previously a Co-Director of the Brain Research New Zealand CoRE. He is an expert in synaptic plasticity, metaplasticity and the neural mechanisms of memory and Alzheimer’s disease.

Cliff has been continuously funded by the MRC/HRC for 26 years, during which time he has served as Director of HRC Programme grants for 16 years (1994-2004, 2010-2015). He also has extensive leadership experience, having served as the HoD of the Psychology Department at the University of Otago (2003-2005), as a founding member (since 1983) and then Chair for eleven years of the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research, and as President of the Australasian Neuroscience Society.

Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Whānau ā Apanui

Co-Lead
Tangata Whenua

Dr Julie Wharewera-Mika (DClinPsy) is a Director, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Kaupapa Māori Researcher with Manu Ārahi (‘The Flying Doctors’). She is a Head of Foundation with MAS Foundation, and has recently been appointed to the new Children and Young People’s Commission. She has been a longstanding member of the National Standing Committee on Bicultural Issues for the New Zealand Psychological Society since 2006, and was a former Bicultural Director on the Executive of the Society and a board member of the NZ Mental Health & Wellbeing Commission.

Julie has extensive experience as a practitioner in the mental health sector supporting whānau. Her broader areas of research interest are focused on improving Māori mental health and wellbeing, mental health service delivery, support services for survivors of sexual violence and Māori mental health workforce development. She was previously a Brain Research NZ Postdoctoral Research Fellow investigating whānau experiences of mate wareware (dementia).

Co-Lead
Tangata Tiriti

Professor Peter Thorne has a joint appointment in the Section of Audiology and Department of Physiology at the University of Auckland. He is a Director of the Eisdell Moore Centre and on the executive for the HealthTech Capability Programme (part of Te Tītoki Mataora) and was previously a Co-Director of Brain Research New Zealand. In 2009, Peter was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to audiology and auditory neuroscience.

Professor Thorne completed his PhD at the University of Auckland and post-doctoral studies at the University of Auckland and at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan. His research is in the area of sensory neurobiology particularly inner ear homeostasis and the influence of noise exposure and ageing on hearing. Peter was previously the Chairman of the National Foundation for the Deaf and was on the Board of the Hearing Research Foundation.

Tangata Tiriti

Catherine Hall is Alzheimers NZ's Chief Executive. Catherine has extensive experience in the health and justice sectors. Her career began as a registered nurse before taking on senior management positions with services for older people including the public sector and with an NGO. After 20 years, Catherine moved to the Justice sector, where she held various senior management roles, before coming back to health and joining Alzheimers NZ in 2012. Under her leadership as Chief Executive Catherine has directed her energy toward strengthening the voice of people living with dementia, focusing on human rights, and building a suite of high quality programmes to support a dementia-friendly New Zealand.

Tapuika

Tangata Whenua

Huia Hanlen has had almost 30 years of experience in the tertiary education sector, beginning as an educator and trainer including working with highly disadvantaged youth. She has been Kaihautū Chief Executive for Brainwave Trust Aotearoa since 2019. Huia’s commitment to education is driven from the impact that knowledge and skill development can have on an individual and their whanau, hapu and iwi. Huia also has Governance experience, including in her role as PADA (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Aotearoa) Co-Chair Tangata Whenua. She shares Brainwave’s vision that all children in Aotearoa New Zealand are valued and nurtured in order to reach their full potential.

Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kahu

Tangata Whenua

Dr Makarena Dudley is Director of University Research in the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. Dr Dudley is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Senior Lecturer with more than 20 years of clinical experience under her belt. She was awarded the Alzheimer’s New Zealand Research Fellowship and she has developed a screening tool for detecting mate wareware (dementia) in Māori and a theory of dementia from a Māori worldview. Her mahi is strongly informed by relationships with the community, including kuia and kaumātua.

Ngāti Maniapoto

Tangata Whenua

Associate Professor Nick Garrett is an experienced applied biostatistician with over 26 years of experience in health research (9 years senior biostatistician at ESR, 17 years senior research fellow at AUT). While full-time employed at AUT, he completed a PhD in 2013, utilizing project management, epidemiological, biostatistical and GIS skills in an applied setting examining physical activity and the urban environment. He collaborates on a large number of health and environmental research projects. In majority of the projects, he is lead biostatistician and takes full responsibility for the design and analysis components. This includes ensuring the design of the project is appropriate and addresses the research questions under investigation, appropriate valid and reliable data measures are used, optimal statistical modelling is undertaken, and appropriate interpretation of results.

Tangata Tiriti

Dr. Simon Hoermann Senior Lecturer for the School of Product Design at the University of Canterbury, and represents a team of researchers from the Human Interface Technology Lab New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ). Before joining the HIT Lab NZ in 2017, Dr. Hoermann was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Positive Computing Lab (University of Sydney) as well as at the Human-Computer Interaction Research Group at the University of Otago, where he also received his PhD.

Simon researches the use of human interface technology for health and well-being application as well as for other domains that require human–computer interaction. The focus is to understand how technology like Virtual and Mixed Reality and game elements can influence user experience and support healthy and people with disabilities in achieving their full potential.

Tangata Tiriti

Dr Vanda Symon is the Associate Dean (Pacific) Pharmacy and Research Fellow at Va’a o Tautai – Centre for Pacific Health at the University of Otago. For many years she enjoyed a career as a community pharmacist and palliative care pharmacist, before switching her focus to her crime writing career and completing a PhD at the University of Otago looking at the communication of science through crime fiction. Vanda has been involved with the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa for many years, and is the National President.

Vanda’s research focuses on access to health services for Pacific Peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is currently working on ethnographic studies into the lived experiences of access to medicines for Pacific Peoples, and on the experiences of dementia for aged Pacific people and their families and methods of improving the communication about the disease and how to access services available to them.

Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Whānau ā Apanui

Co-Lead

Senior Clinical Psychologist and Health Researcher with Manu Ārahi – The Flying Doctors

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Porou

Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell currently works at University of Auckland as a Senior Research Fellow. She is a founding member of the Te Arai Palliative Care and End of Life Research Group. Tess leads qualitative research on indigenous end of life care from a family perspective. Her current project is Pae Herenga, a study of traditional Maori end of life care customs.

Co-Lead

Professor of Psychology at the University of Otago

Co-Lead

Professor of Physiology and Audiology at the University of Auckland

Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tuhoe, Te Whānau-a-Apanui

Co-Lead

Senior Clinical Psychologist and Health Researcher with Manu Ārahi – The Flying Doctors

Strategic Lead

Project Manager with experience in business and non-profit sectors, including advocacy, strategy development and implementation and data

Ngāpuhi

ABP Administrator and PhD Candidate at the University of Otago