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
Steph Feldbrugge
Steph Feldbrugge - St George's Hospital
Steph's areas of focus as leader within the Colleague and Capability team at St George's Hospital, are wellbeing and culture, maximising colleague potential, operational excellence within the HR portfolio.
Steph has a passion for working with people and her experience covers a wide range of industries before joining St Georges Hospital in Christchurch. She is also very passionate about her community involvement with the New Zealand Spinal Trust.
Talk Title: Fit for Change: Building Mental Fitness Tools that Matter.
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
Lorraine Hetaraka & Martin Chadwick
Lorraine Hetaraka - Chief Nursing Officer, Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Lorraine Hetaraka (Tapuika, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāiterangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Kahu)
She has worked at the Ministry of Health for just over three years. Prior to joining she was the Chief Executive of Te Arawa Whānau Ora, an organisation that supports a collective rōpū of Māori providers to deliver health and social services across Te Arawa. Lorraine completed her Masters, in 2018 at the University of Auckland and was awarded with first class honours. Her thesis ‘He Ope Awhi,’ explored best practice for recruitment of Māori New Graduate Nurses.
Lorraine has a strong clinical background in paediatrics, primary care - community and nursing leadership. She has previously held Primary Care Nursing Leadership roles at the National Hauora Coalition, ProCare Health and Homecare Medical (Whakarongorau). Prior to this she was joint Associate Director of Nursing at Auckland Hospital and the University of Auckland.
Lorraine has extensive experience in strategic leadership, policy, governance and workforce planning. She is committed to supporting nursing leadership and advancing nursing practice with the focus on delivering equitable health outcomes for the people we serve.
Dr Martin Chadwick – Chief Allied Health Scientific and Technical Officer, Ministry of Health
Martin is the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer within the Ministry of Health, working in partnership with the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Midwifery Officer and Chief Nursing Officer in providing transdisciplinary clinical leadership and advice. The role works at a systems level as well as providing support to clinicians, programmes and projects across the Ministry. Martin was the 2019-20 New Zealand Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. He has completed his doctoral degree in 2019 examining health workforce change. He is passionate about the untapped potential that allied health professions can bring in improving the quality of care provided to our populations, and in turn better meeting equitable population health needs. More recently he worked with his team to publish the first iteration of the Hauora Haumi | Allied Health report which captures the potential and associated challenges for an initial grouping of 14 professions with the intention to build on this over time.
Talk Title: Team working, in the Ministry, HNZ and beyond
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.
Talk Title: Are we on the same wavelength? Can we do it better?
Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson - Medline Australia
Jackie Wilson is Medline Australia’s ESG Manager. Medline is a global business, based in the US, supplying medical consumables to over 100 countries. They employ more than 38,000 people worldwide.
Medline Australia has global backing, whilst operating a domestic business in ANZ specific to local healthcare needs. Their expertise includes Surgical Packs, PPE and OR solutions.
Jackie has been with Medline Australia for 10 years, developing an authentic Environmental, Social & Governance Program to support employees, customers and our communities.