Contact Us

melody.smith@auckland.ac.nz – Professor Melody Smith’s research and supervision activities focus on understanding how environments can support wellbeing across the lifespan through facilitating active travel modes, mobility, physical activity, connections with nature, and social connectivity. She is particularly interested in ecological and systems approaches to understanding the complexity of environment-health relationships, using mixed methods, integrating objective measures (e.g., accelerometry, inclinometry, GPS, GIS) and person-centred methods (participatory approaches, online mapping), and employing creative methods to activate community voice. Melody teaches at an undergraduate and postgraduate level on child health and research methodology and methods. Full profile here: https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/melody-smith

t.clark@auckland.ac.nz – Professor Terryann Clark (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua ki Kaipara) is a registered comprehensive nurse with extensive experience in youth health, community health, sexual health, health promotion, youth mental health, and Māori health. She is the Cure Kids Professorial Chair in Child and Adolescent Mental Health based in the School of Nursing. She is a founding member of the Adolescent Health Research Group (AHRG) and was the principal investigator of the Youth’12 and co-lead of the Youth19 national youth health and wellbeing surveys in secondary schools (http://www.youthresearch.auckland.ac.nz and www.youth19.ac.nz). She led an HRC project exploring the influence of whanaungatanga on rangatahi Māori outcomes, and currently leading a programme of research for Cure Kids around youth mental health prevntion strategies for rangatahi Maori – for publications and resources see www.youth19.ac.nz (http://www.youth19.ac.nz). Full profile here: https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/t-clark

k.ward@auckland.ac.nz – Dr. Kim Ward is a registered nurse and senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, specialising in patients’ experiences of long-term conditions to inform practice and interventions. She has a background in intensive care and respiratory nursing; her doctorate explored people’s experiences of using therapies for sleep apnoea. Research interests include patients’ and health professionals’ experiences of healthcare in the areas of sleep medicine, the wider area of chronic conditions and fetal and maternal health, along with a focus on patient- and whanau-centred experiences. Kim is skilled in using qualitative methodologies, particularly grounded theory and mixed methodology. She is also skilled in using qualitative data generation techniques, trained in interview and field research methods and qualitative data analysis methods. Full profile here: https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/k-ward

e.yao@auckland.ac.nz – Dr Esther Yao is a Research Fellow at Mātauranga Hauora (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences), Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland). She is currently working on two main research strands. The first strand focuses on youth population mental health, with an emphasis on social determinants and primary prevention. The second strand focuses on empirically investigating how ethnic classification decisions impact applied quantitative research. Both strands are underpinned by Te Tiriti o Waitangi and a critical quantitative approach to equity and social justice. Esther is affiliated with the Adolescent Health Research Group (AHRG), best known for the Youth2000 health and wellbeing survey series. Her research is funded through an Ember Korowai Takitini Lived Experience Research Grant (led by Esther) and a Cure Kids Programme Grant (led by Professor Terryann Clark). Esther has an academic background in psychology and education, and has previously worked in the Growing Up in New Zealand birth cohort study and the Faculty of Education and Social Work. Full profile here: https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/e-yao