Speakers
We are delighted to introduce this year's speakers.
This page is being updated regularly. Please check back later for more information.
Nathan Coombs
Nathan Coombs - Great Western Hospital, Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust
Mr Nathan Coombs is a Senior Breast Surgeon at the Great Western hospital, Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust. He is a specialist consultant breast surgeon with skills including breast conserving surgery and sentinel node biopsy techniques. He has trained surgeons to provide intra-operative breast radiotherapy (IORT) and specialist General Surgery skills including laparoscopic hernia repair.
He is the author of many research papers, published in international peer-reviewed medical journals and is an advisor to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer as well as a specialist commentator for technology appraisal with the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
Specialty:
Consultant Breast General and Endocrine Surgeon
Talk Title: Hands Deserve Better - A Systematic Review of Surgical Gloving Practice
Elana Curtis
Elana Curtis - Taikura Consultants Ltd.
Elana Taipapaki Curtis (FNZCPHM, MD, MPH, MBChB, BHB) is a Māori (Te Arawa) public health medicine specialist. She is Co-Director of Taikura Consultants Ltd and Oro Nuku Ltd providing Māori health expertise and training to the health sector and is an Associate Professor in Māori Health at the University of Auckland (currently leading an HRC national project exploring non-COVID related Māori health inequities following pandemic management). She has completed her Doctorate of Medicine (MD) focused on Indigenous health workforce development and has been involved in Kaupapa Māori Research (both quantitative and qualitative) investigating Indigenous and ethnic inequities within tertiary and health care contexts including: breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, emergency department care, racism within clinical decision making and cultural safety. She has multiple international and national awards including a LIME (Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education) Life Award, Māori TV Matariki Te Tupu-ā-Rangi Award for Health and Science, the LIMELite Award for Excellence in Indigenous Health Education Research and the Ako Aotearoa National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award (Kaupapa Māori Category). She is Kaiārahi (Mentor) for the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine and was a founding member of Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa (Māori Medical Practitioners Association).
Talk Title: An Introduction to Cultural Safety, Cultural Competency and Hauora Māori
David Downs
David Downs - CMInstD Genetically Modified Optimist
David has had a successful career in the private and public sector and is now CEO of The New Zealand Story, an ambitious government-funded organisation marketing New Zealand to the world.
He also acts as a consultant and is a director on several boards, including as Chair of The Icehouse. David is an ex-comedian, TV and radio actor, semi-finalist for New Zealander of the Year, cancer survivor and a published author of the books No.8 Re-wired, No.8 Recharged, A Mild Touch of the Cancer, and Silver Linings.
David founded SOS Business, a hugely successful not-for-profit initiative to help cafes and other small businesses during covid-19.
Talk Title: Patients embrace change
Nadine Gray & Jacqui Lunday
Nadine Gray - Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Nadine Gray (Te Whakatōhea) was announced as National Chief Nurse for Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, from 1 July, 2024.
Formerly Chief Nursing Officer at Te Aka Whai Ora | Māori Health Authority, Nadine has a proven track record of strategic leadership, clinical expertise, and a deep commitment to advancing Māori health outcomes.
The primary purpose of the National Chief Nurse role is to provide strong professional leadership for our highly valued nurses across the system, ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality care. This includes developing and maintaining the nursing workforce as well as increasing the proportion of Māori and Pacific nurses. As a member of the National Clinical Leadership Team, Nadine will help ensure that clinical advice and expertise underpins strategic decisions, especially for service design and delivery of healthcare.
Nadine’s previous experience includes roles as Clinical Chief Advisor Nursing at Manatū Hauora | Ministry of Health, and as Māori Clinical Nurse Specialist in Cancer Care at Capital & Coast DHB, supporting whānau Māori in cancer care pathways. She holds a Master of Health Sciences with First Class Honours and is currently an adjunct teaching fellow at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Practice at Victoria University of Wellington.
Jacqui Lunday – National Chief Allied Health Scientific and Technical
Jacqui is an experienced and impactful AHS&T leader with an international profile and extensive multi-professional networks. Her previous experience includes more than 10 years as a technical advisor to the World Health Organisation in Geneva, alongside working as Chief Health Professions Officer for the Scottish Government for 17 years.
Jacqui was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2015 for services to healthcare and health professions. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, a Doctor of Queen Margaret’s University, and holds a BSc and a Diploma in Occupational Therapy. She is a Registered Occupational Therapist in New Zealand and a Member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.
Jacqui was previously the Executive Director AHS&T for Waitaha and Te Tai o Poutini from 2018 - 2024. She is excited about the opportunities for working in partnership with primary care, public health and across the different clinical specialties to contribute to change, strengthen a multidisciplinary approach to care, support equity and improve health outcomes, aligned with Te Pae Tata.
Monique Greene
Monique Greene - Waitematā District Health Board | Te Whatu Ora Waitematā
Monique is the health analytics manager at the Institute for Innovation and Improvement (i3), Te Whatu Ora Waitematā. Monique has been with Waitematā since 2006 and has a special interest in surgery. Her role is best described as engaging directly with clinicians and management to best understand their needs and then build solutions to enable better health outcomes for our patients. She uses a range of tools including predictive analytics (R), Business Intelligence tools (Qlik Sense), and traditional reporting (Microsoft SQL server reporting services). She has been involved nationally, regionally and locally with the COVID response in New Zealand as well as the National Theatre Rapid workstream.
Talk Title: Harnessing National Theatre Data: Driving Change in Public Hospital Resource Management.
Cheryl Gush
Cheryl Gush - The Growth Conversation | Transformational Coach
Cheryl has a long history of involvement in health care in NZ and South Africa. After qualifying as a professional nurse in 1990 she spent a couple of years in clinical roles and transitioned to a career in pharmaceuticals and then medical devices. Cheryl’s ongoing commitment to personal and professional transformation and growth is evident in her continued pursuit of new knowledge through her Master's in Business Administration in 2008, a Master's in Leadership in 2017, and her current PhD research. With a deep interest in how art can inform and transform how we look, see, and think about ourselves and others, Cheryl’s current research explores the links between portrait painting and self-awareness in leaders.
For the past 4 years, Cheryl has been working with leaders across multiple industries, including healthcare, as a growth coach focused on transformational leadership.
Cheryl@thegc.co
0275732163
www.thegc.co
Talk Title: The challenge of embracing change. It starts with me.
Michael Hempseed
Michael Hempseed - Professional Speaker
Michael Hempseed is the author of Being A True Hero: Understanding and Preventing Suicide in Your Community and co-author of Calming Your Child. Michael, is a very busy professional speaker, delivering between 150-200 talks every year. He has spoken to Fonterra, NZ Post, Fire and Emergency NZ and many others. Michael gained an honours degree in Psychology from the University of Canterbury in 2008. In 2016 he spoke at TEDx.
Talk Title: Change in Times of Stress and Crisis
Change in Times of Stress and Crisis
In the modern world there are many patients and health workers who experience high stress and trauma. Research suggests that when people are in states of high stress, they usually find even small changes very difficult. This can be exceptionally frustrating for health workers who want to change a patient’s behaviour and management who want to make positive changes for staff.
This talk will look at:
- The neuroscience of the stressed and traumatised brain
- Case studies of resistance to change
- Evidence based strategies to help people change who are under high stress
Pat Johnston
Pat Johnston - Conference MC
Pat’s background is people orientated, for 32 years she has run her own conference and events management business. Pat has a degree in Strategic planning and Event Management.
For a number of years Pat has been the professional conference manager for the Theatre Managers conference and in her retirement is excited to be included in the 2025 event . Her community work includes co-chair of Working for Otepoti Women (exYWCA Dunedin), the board of Old Cromwell Inc, Pat enjoys being a business mentor, oversees the summer Cromwell farmers & craft market. Pat plays bridge, enjoys a lake Dunstan swim and an ebike ride, volunteers for the Red Cross and Salvation army op shops and Women Helping Otepoti. She also shares her experience for community organisations who need strategic support from time to time.