Members of the Health Promotion Committee
Members of the Health Promotion Committee (2008/09)
Ann Shaw (Chair)
Associate Professor Richard Edwards
Starting out as a staff nurse in Wellington Hospital's Children's Surgical ward in the early 1960s, followed by 2 years OE working with families and new babies, then Plunket nursing in Wellington, Ann attended Victoria University in the first group undertaking the evening classes of the two year Certificate of Social Studies before attending the School of Advanced Nursing in 1969. She became assistant matron at Dannevirke Hospital in the early 70s, followed by a short break to care for a young family she then worked as district Plunket nurse in Manawatu, moving to Gisborne in 1983 where she worked in Plunket until 1986 before joining the Health Department District Office as a Public Health Nurse. In 1998, Ann returned to Palmerston North as health promotion coordinator for BreastScreen Coast to Coast, one of the regional BreastScreen Aotearoa programmes covering the Taranaki, Wanganui, MidCentral, Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti DHB's - an area extending from Taranaki through to Gisborne. It's a role she holds to this day.
Ann is a passionate supporter of the view that health must be viewed in its holistic dimensions as an aspect of everyday living rather than the idea that the symbols of health are hospitals and ill-health care services. She considers that health must also include the wider dimensions of housing, education, transport, employment and environment for the benefit of the whole population - now and for future generations. Ann has been involved within The Manawatu Centre of Cancer Society since 1999, working with and as a volunteer. Currently. she represents Manawatu on the executive of Central Districts Division.
Jan works for MidCentral Health in administration at Community Mental Health Service in Palmerston North, a position she has held for 11 years. In September 2005, at the age of 54, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. That day changed her life for ever. Since completing treatment in July 2006 she has developed an over-riding interest in nutrition and physical exercise and the role these two things play in the prevention of some cancers (and other non-communicable diseases). She is also passionate about the implementation of colorectal cancer screening, particularly for those at risk. In March/April 2008 Jan completed the Cancer Consumer Representative Training Course and was honoured to be asked to represent consumers on the Cancer Society Health Promotion Committee. She strongly believes in the need to get information out there because knowledge is the key to being able to make choices in life.
Kathrine is the Regional Co-ordinator for the Keeping Well programme at Regional Public Health, Hutt Valley DHB. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in health management and is currently completing a Masters in Health Science at Auckland University, focusing on public health. Kathrine has a long history of working with Maori communities and extensive experience in health promotion and community development. Among her many roles Kathrine has been the chair of the Auckland branch of the Public Health Association (PHA).
Associate Professor Richard Edwards
Richard Edwards is Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, where he is Director of the Health Promotion and Policy Research Unit. He trained in medicine and then public health in the UK. He has a particular interest in tobacco control, and continues to serve on the Royal College of Physicians of London Tobacco Advisory Group, and is an Associate Editor of the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. Professor Edwards has 13 years of teaching experience in health promotion and epidemiology. His research interests include tobacco use epidemiology, tobacco control policy, secondhand smoke and smoke free policies, smoking and eye diseases and the prevention of non-communicable diseases in developing countries.
Recent completed research projects have included: leading an the evaluation of the 2003 Smokefree Amendment Act in New Zealand; air quality studies in hospitality venues and cars in New Zealand and the UK; and a case control study of the link between living close to heavy industry and lung cancer in the north-east of England. He is currently a principal investigator on tobacco control research projects funded by the HRC and Marsden Fund.
Tony Reeder has a PhD in preventive & social medicine from the University of Otago and is currently Director of the Cancer Society Social and Behavioural Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine. Dr Reeder's previous experience includes working as a Research Fellow in the Hugh Adam Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Dunedin School of Medicine, 1998-1999; Research Fellow, Injury Prevention Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, 1997-1998; and Health Research Council (HRC) Postdoctoral Fellow, Injury Prevention Research Unit, 1995-1997. Dr Reeder also worked in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, Dept. Paediatrics and Child Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, 1988 to 1993, contributing to the Dunedin longitudinal study.
Dr Reeder has more than 50 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals, authored many reports and given many conference presentations, He has worked as part of several international collaborative research initiatives including with Dr Jean-Luc Bulliard of the Epidemiology Unit at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland; Prof. Alec Wagenaar at the Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, USA; Prof Patrick West at the Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow University, Scotland; and staff at the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, The Cancer Council Victoria, Australia.
Stewart Reid qualified in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1973, completed a family medicine training programme in Fife, Scotland and emigrated to New Zealand. He has been in General Practice at Ropata Medical Centre in Lower Hutt for more than 30 years. As well as being involved in teaching General Practice, he has a special interest in immunisation and has been a member of the committee which advises the Government on Immunisation policy since 1980. He was involved the Meningococcal Vaccine Strategy and designed the safety monitoring programme for MeNZB vaccination. He has served on the National Heart Foundation Scientific and Health Education committees. He is currently Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland.
Grant Schofield is Professor of Public Health at AUT University, based on the North Shore campus of Auckland. He is also the founder and director of the Centre for Physical Activity Research at AUT. Professor Schofield has research interests in the areas of physical activity, health promotion, physical activity measurement and environmental health. He has special interests in the workplace as a setting for health promotion, children's physical activity and nutrition, and urban design as it relates to physical activity and sedentary behaviours, especially transport.
John Waldon has been employed as a Research Officer in Te Pumanawa Hauora Centre for Maori Health Research and Development, a health research unit at Massey University, Palmerston North for 14 years. In 2006, John was awarded the inaugural Ormond College Freemantle Fellowship and was hosted as Fellow of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne for 3 months as part of his PhD studies. John was a part-time Health Research Council Maori Health Training Fellow from 1998 to 2002 and completed his PhD in Maori Studies, in 2008. John is particularly interested in health determinants and has pursued this interest with the investigation of the prevention of liver cancer using hepatitis B vaccine, breast feeding and self assessed health for children.
In 2003 he was awarded a HRC grant to investigate the efficacy of neonatal immunisation, and in the previous year he undertook a two-month short-term consultancy to improve the control of hepatitis B in the Western Pacific region with the World Health Organization in Manila, Philippines. John has also recently investigated breast feeding in relation to Hepatitis B in collaboration with Dr Marewa Glover (University of Auckland).
