The Health Committee

This committee is chaired by Julia Black, who brings extensive experience in research ethics and ethical governance. Julia serves as a lay member of the National Ethics Advisory Committee (NEAC) and holds a Master's degree in Bioethics and Health Law.

The Reviewers

We use a number of reviewers, all with long experience in research ethics. Please note, not all members are listed. Reviewers may be co-opted from the Social Science Committee as required:

Dr Sarah Bush

Sarah is a medical doctor, teacher and ethicist. She has been on the Otago University health research ethics committee for over 6 years.

Associate Professor Amy Chan

Amy is Associate Professor and Respiratory lead of the Medicines Intelligence group at the School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland. She now leads a research group that explores the intersection between digital technology, big data and respiratory health, with a focus on asthma care and outcomes.

Associate Professor Vanessa Jordan

Vanessa is an epidemiologist/methodologist specialising in trial design, biostatistics, systematic reviews and epidemiology, is the New Zealand Cochrane Fellow, and sits on the National Ethics Advisory Committee.

Professor Alex James

Alex uses mathematical modelling, taking real life problems and data and using mathematics to explore phenomenology and underlying principles. She was integral to the mathematical epidemiological modelling that allowed Aotearoa New Zealand to understand Covid's probable impact in 2020.

Kennedy Templer

Kennedy has completed her Master's in Public Health at the University of Otago. She has been a part of the Aotearoa research ethics committee since 2022, and works for the Ethics Office at Victoria University of Wellington.

Rohit Bhattacharjee

Rohit has over 10 years of experience within both the health and research sectors. He graduated from the University of Auckland with Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Health Sciences degrees, and has certifications in Project, Programme, and Change Management. He currently manages the Acute Flow and Financial Sustainability Programmes at the Counties Manukau district of Health New Zealand.

Angela Frazer

Angela is a registered nurse. She specialises in cosmetic injectable treatments. She has worked previously in hospital settings, focussing on treatments of burns.

Dr Rebeka Freckleton

Rebeka is an experienced research governance and ethics professional with a background spanning health, legal, and academic research settings. She holds a PhD from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the University of Sydney.

Karen Goa

Karen is a Canadian-born travel writer and photographer. She has a particular interest in health research and in ensuring that ethical review upholds respect, transparency, and participant wellbeing.

Associate Professor Anaru Waa

Andrew is a public health academic whose research work has focussed on how we can eliminate tobacco-related harm among whānau Māori and achieve a Tupeka Kore vision for Aotearoa.

Dr Adam Denny

Adam is an experienced health and digital strategy professional with a PhD in Health Science and a strong track record of delivering complex, cross-sector initiatives across public health, regulation, and pharmaceutical industries.

Jane Hanley

Jane is a retired health manager (with social work qualifications), who has over 40 years' clinical leadership and managerial experience within the Health sector of New Zealand. Jane also has over 15 years’ experience on research ethics committees as a lay member.

Brynn Spain

Brynn is an Assistant Research Fellow at the University of Otago in Wellington, where she works across the surgical immunology, surgical cancer and translational gynaecology research groups. She has also graduated from The University of Auckland with a Master of Science specialising in biological science.