Our Team

Directors

Prof Ngaire Kerse

Ngaire is a GP with extra training in older people’s health who has a passion for improving health and wellbeing with older people. She works for Joyce Cook Chair in Ageing Well, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

Ngaire has expertise in falls prevention, bi-cultural ageing, organisational culture in aged residential care, and clinical trials to test useful ways of working to improve outcomes for older people. Ngaire is actively involved in teaching and research at the University of Auckland as well as governance of assessment processes for the Ministry of Health and President of the New Zealand Association of Gerontology.

Dr Joanna Hikaka

Joanna is a Senior Research Fellow, Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland.  

She is a pharmacist and health researcher with clinical and research experience in older adult health, Māori health, and health service development. She has worked across primary, secondary, and aged residential care settings. Her current research focuses on health intervention development and implementation in the real world. 

Dr Tia Reihana

Tia (Ngāti Hine) is a senior lecturer in Dance Studies, Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. She has been an educator in the secondary and tertiary sectors for over 20 years.  

Her research explores community and formal sites of arts education, informed by Indigenous ways of knowing and doing. Most recently, she secured major funding to support the delivery of Toi Rongoā (Māori healing arts) within New Zealand’s formal Health and Corrections sectors. 

Prof Vanessa Burholt BSc, PhD, FAcSS

Vanessa is founding co-director of the Center for Co-Created Aging Research, Honorary Professor of Gerontology at the University of Auckland, with 26 years of research experience and over NZ$113 million in funding. She has published extensively on ageing, dementia, and social issues, and previously led major ageing research centres in the UK. 

A Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences, she champions co-produced, transdisciplinary research and leads the Knowledge and Impact working group. She has published more than 70 papers and book chapters on dementia, rurality, social exclusion, loneliness, support networks, intergenerational relationships, ethnicity and migration.  

Governance

John Tuoro
Kaitiaki Roopū

Theme Leads

Alan Wang

PhD Scholars

Operational Team

Andréa Poiret
Research Assistant

Keisha Rawiri
Dementia Design Aotearoa