Meet the Growing Up team
Senior Management
The Senior Management team is responsible for the strategic direction of the Growing Up in New Zealand study.
Associate Professor Sarah-Jane Paine
Sarah-Jane is Growing Up in New Zealand's Research Director. She is an experienced Kaupapa Māori epidemiologist and has been involved in an extensive range of projects investigating ethnic inequities in health and the determinants of health across the life-course.
Sarah-Jane was previously a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Tomaiora Research Group at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. She holds science degrees from the University of Otago and a PhD in Public Health from Massey University. She has taught Māori Health and Kaupapa Māori research methods across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Prior to becoming Growing Up in New Zealand's Research Director, she was a member of the study's Kaitiaki Group.
Debra Fenton
Debra has moved from the Operations Manager role, to act as Programme Director until a new appointment can be made. Key responsibilities of the Programme Director is to plan and deliver the strategic direction of the study in partnership with the Research Director. As the Operations Manager for Growing Up in New Zealand, Debra's key responsibilities included overseeing the field operations team and providing a link between our community, the study interviewers.
Professor Susan Morton
Susan is Growing Up in New Zealand's Foundation director. She is an expert in life course epidemiology and a specialist in Public Health Medicine.
Susan spearheaded Growing Up in New Zealand since it began and has developed an international reputation as a leader in longitudinal research. She was recognised for her contribution with the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2019. She now provides oversight, advice and expertise to the study as a Foundation Director.
Susan is also the Director of the University of Auckland cross-faculty Centre for Longitudinal Research - He Ara ki Mua.
Susan has a first class honours degree in pure mathematics and trained as a secondary teacher prior to undertaking her MBChB in Auckland. She undertook postgraduate training in paediatrics before being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake a PhD in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Susan in passionate about child wellbeing and translating research to make a difference to life course health.
Dr Carin Napier
Carin is a specialist in food and nutrition, and was formerly an Associate Professor and Director of Research at the Durban University of Technology (South Africa). She retains the role of Adjunct Professor at that University.
A published academic with 24 articles in accredited journals, she presented her research at several International conferences. She has supervised and co-supervised many PhD and Masters’ students.
Her role at Growing Up in New Zealand is in research management and coordination, and she aims to further her research interests in food security and dietary diversity in New Zealand children.
Operations
The operations team work with the research team to implement the strategy and plans for Growing Up in New Zealand.
Avinesh Pillai
Avinesh is the Lead Biostatistician at Growing Up. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland, and Lead Consultant at the Statistical Consulting Centre (SCC). He is a biostatistician by training and has worked on many medical studies ranging from health surveys and epidemiological studies to multinational clinical trials in the fields of cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases. His current research focus is on longitudinal data methods and statistical computing.
Sinead Miller
Sinead is helping to deliver statistical analysis for Growing Up in New Zealand. She comes to Growing Up with a Masters in Data Analytics and a Bachelors majoring in Psychology and Sociology. She has worked in both the public and private sector.
Rebecca Ryland
Rebeca has tertiary qualifications in health sciences and commerce. She has a background of data analysis in the public health sector.
She facilitates the data access processes for Growing Up in New Zealand data users.
Rina Prasad
Rina has extensive experience in data management, observational studies and in international randomised trials. A past executive member of the Australasian Health and Research Data Manager’s Association, she has special expertise in trial and questionnaire design, quality management systems and standards and, data management and governance. Rina leads the data management for Growing Up in New Zealand.
Anushree Kedia
Anushree is a Data Manager at Growing Up in New Zealand with over seven years’ experience in large clinical research organisations and the pharmaceutical industry. She has expertise in clinical research development systems, database maintenance, and clinical best practice. Anushree has worked on several interventional multi-site clinical trials in a range of therapeutic areas like oncology, focus on data and trial management.
Jeannie Yi
Jeannie is a Data Manager at Growing Up in New Zealand with over 10 years of research experience both locally and internationally. Jeannie is skilled at longitudinal research data analysis, data quality management and governance. She has a great interest in marketing and psychology, and the wider research areas around child development. Her current role focuses on longitudinal data methods and management.
Penny Zipfel
Penny has extensive experience as a quantitative researcher within market research companies and is a member of the Research Association of NZ. More recently she has held roles focusing on evaluation and project management. She holds a Masters degree in Human Geography and a Graduate Diploma in Business (Marketing).
Michelle Wheadon
Michelle has a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition (with Distinction) and a Master’s paper in Advanced Quantitative Methods combined with over 20 years of research experience both locally and internationally. Her experience includes research in the public health sector, food industry and market research agencies.
Savili Itamua
Talofa lava & Malo e lelei. My name is Savili and I’m of Samoan and Tongan descent. My role as the Pacific & Māori Participant Engagement Coordinator is to coordinate the field operations interviewers within my hubs and our Growing Up in New Zealand families, to ensure quality engagement as well as accurate data sets. My background is in health promotion and public health and I’m passionate about raising awareness around health within our communities. I have a 1 year old son who is very active and my husband and I speak only gagana Samoa (Samoan language) to him. Fa’afetai lava.
Krista Hodder
Krista is a mother to four adult children, three foster children and a grandmother to three grandchildren. Her home life is busy and full of fun. She's been involved in the Growing Up in New Zealand since the cohort children were three-years-old. Her passion for the study stems from an interest in the diversity of New Zealand families and a joy in seeing the study children change and grow from one visit to the next.
Mandy Heathcote
Mandy is an experienced administrator and provides support to the Programme Director, Research Director, and the wider team.
Sinn Kueh
Sinn is the Finance Business Partner for Growing Up in New Zealand. She is a Chartered Accountant, with business partnering experience providing accounting services across a wide range of industries. Having previously worked in winemaking, manufacturing, construction and health, she is passionate in adding value to project management.
Julia Potapova
Julia has a Diploma in Cloud Engineering and has experience with AWS cloud solutions. She is providing support to external and internal users of Growing Up in New Zealand's information systems.
Researchers
The Growing Up in New Zealand is led by multi-disciplinary research team made up of experts across the key research domains of the study. Many of the team combine their work at Growing Up with clinical, academic and research roles outside of the study
Dr Denise Neumann
Denise’s doctoral work involved longitudinal analyses of associations between dialysis treatment and cognitive functioning, as well as psychosocial wellbeing in adults with chronic kidney disease. Her current research interests include children’s cognitive development from early childhood onwards, including inhibitory control and language. She is specifically interested what factors promote or hinder cognitive development of tamariki in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Dr Ben Fletcher
Ben has been involved in longitudinal research assessing nutrition and mental health, early childhood engagement settings for the promotion of Māori culture and well-being, and factors that influence patient-reported outcomes and disease severity to help inform medical practice. His doctoral work focused on nutritional interventions, specifically assessing the effect of vitamin C on mental health in healthy young adults. Ben's current research is investigating factors that may impact children's psychosocial and cognitive development in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Josie Tait
Josie is a paediatric occupational therapist with work and research experience in the field of education. She did her master’s thesis on the practices and prioritisation of fundamental movement skills in Aotearoa New Zealand, merging her interests in health and education. Josie has a particular interest in understanding the factors from birth through to adulthood that influence the extent to which ākonga/students are enabled to reach their educational goals.
Karl Crosby
Karl completed his MSc in Plant Pathology at the University of Auckland, focusing on potyviruses affecting Cucurbits in the Pacific. He has worked in plant metabolomics at Royal Holloway, UOL on the development of more stress tolerant, carotenoid rich crops and RNA-Seq datasets. He has an interest in how different biological systems interact with each other.
