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.
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.
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.
Operations
The operations team work with the research team to implement the strategy and plans for Growing Up in New Zealand.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
