Public Health Advisory Committee

About Us
Committee Members

Photo of Pauline Barnett.

Pauline Barnett
Pauline Barnett is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and General Practice at the University of Otago, Christchurch.

She completed her doctorate on the changes in primary care in New Zealand at the University of Otago in 2001. She is currently a member of the Health Promotion Advisory Committee of Partnership Health PHO, the ComCare Trust Inc, the St John of God New Zealand Health and Community Services Board and the Volunteer, Information and Support Services Advisory Committee of the Cancer Society of New Zealand. Pauline has published widely on health services restructuring and public health. She is a former national president of the Public Health Association of New Zealand and the Association's Public Health Champion for 2004.

Photo of Robin Kearns.

Robin Kearns
Robin Kearns is a Professor at the School of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Auckland (2006-present), He began his career at the University of Auckland with a Medical Research Council post doctoral fellowship (1988-1989), having completed a PhD in Geography at McMaster University, Canada.

Professor Kearns is a board member at the Centre for Housing Research (2003-present), member of the Public Health Research Committee of the Health Research Council (2001-present).

His research and teaching ranges across the geography of health services, the determinants of health and the cultural politics of place.

Professor Kearns has published over 100 peer reviewed publications and two internationally recognised books on the links between culture, place and health. He edits three journals: the New Zealand Geographer, Health and Place, and Health and Social Care in the Community.

Phil Shoemack
Phil Shoemack is Medical Officer of Health for the Bay of Plenty and Lakes DHBs, a role he has held almost continuously since 1988. He has also been a part-time branch medical advisor for ACC (1995-2002) and a self-employed public health consultant (1992-present), and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University.

Dr Shoemack attained his medical degree from Otago University (1979) and completed his specialist training in Public Health Medicine in 1986. He also gained a Diploma in Occupational Medicine from Auckland University (1996).

Dr Shoemack has been a member of a number of advisory committees including - the Ministry of Health’s Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (2000-2006), the National Cervical Screening Programme Advisory Group (2003-2007), the National Rollout Advisory Group for the MeNZB programme, and the Health Protection Advisory Group.”

Photo of Linda Holloway.

Professor Linda Holloway
Professor Holloway is an emeritus professor of the University of Otago. She is a specialist anatomical pathologist and at an earlier stage in her career also worked in rural general practice.

Her major area of research interest has been respiratory pathology and in particular the pathology of asthma. She has served on a number of Ministry committees in the past including the Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee and was one of the advisers to Dame Silvia Cartwright during the inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer at National Womens' Hospital.

Photo of Dale Bramley.

Dale Bramley
Dale Bramley (Nga Puhi) is a Public Health Physician and the General Manager of Funding and Planning for the Waitemata District Health Board. He is also an Honarary Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. In 2003/04 Dale was a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy.

He is currently a member of the New Zealand Population Charitable Trust, a previous member of the National Ethics Advisory Committee and is a fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine.

Photo of Maaka Tauranga Tibble.

Maaka Tibble
Maaka Tibble (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-a-Apanui) is Manager of Māori Health for Tairawhiti District Health. Prior to this he worked for Waitemata DHB as Pouwhakahaere Kaupapa for Māori Mental Health Drug & Alcohol Services (2000-2001). He has held a number of senior positions with the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. In 1992 he was awarded the Cyril White Memorial Trust Award and the Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship Award. In 2002 his work was recognised when he received a Queen’s Jubilee Honour and became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. He is an advocate and activist for disability and mental health consumers and accordingly chairs Ngati Kapo Aotearoa Inc, an advocacy organisation of blind Māori persons
and their whānau and, recently, Te Kupenga Net Trust, a mental health consumer advocacy group.

Dr Shelia Williams.

Dr Shelia Williams

is currently an Associate Professor for the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine (1986-present). Before this she was a Biostatistician at the Dunedin multidisciplinary Health and Development Unit. Dr Williams completed a Doctor of Science at the University of Otago (2004) and a Postgraduate Diploma of Science (1979). She is currently a member of the Multi Region Ethics Committee. As a biostatistician, Dr Williams has worked with groups of reserchers with interests in SIDS, child and adolescent health, nutrition and diabetes. She is a member of the New Zealand Statistical Association, the New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.