Dr Jessica Hutchings
Jessica (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati) is inspired to teach and facilitate learning. Her work background is in university teaching and kaupapa Māori research in the area of Environmental Studies and Education. She has worked as a lecturer in Māori environmental management and cultural geography for over a decade and has a particular interest in Indigenous food production, food sovereignty, food security and Indigenous wellbeing. The move away from theory, and into the doing, seems very natural. She now has her hands in the soil whenever she can and enjoys the opportunity to share and learn from others who join her in the māra.
(Adapted from Hutchings, J. (2015). Te Mahi Māra Hua Parakore: A Māori food sovereignty handbook (p. 13). Ōtaki: Te Tākupu, Te Wānanga o Raukawa.)

Websites

• Jessica Hutchings
• Interview with Radio New Zealand
• Te Mahi Māra Hua Parakore

Dr Rhys Jones
Rhys is a Public Health Physician and is currently Senior Lecturer at Te Kupenga Hauora Maori (TKHM), University of Auckland. As Director of Teaching in TKHM, he oversees Māori Health teaching, learning and assessment in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

His research interests include ethnic inequalities in health, Indigenous health in health professional education, and environmental influences on health. Rhys is Principal Investigator of the Educating for Equity study, an international research project examining how health professional education can reduce inequities and improve health outcomes for Indigenous populations.

In 2005-06, Rhys was a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy based at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. His fellowship project examined interventions to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care using organisational case studies. Rhys received his medical degree and Master of Public Health from The University of Auckland.

Dr. Lance O’Sullivan
Lance is a medical and community leader living and working in Kaitaia, a remote and challenged area of rural New Zealand. Lance is an accomplished author1, national and international public speaker, role model, disruptive leader and innovator. From a young boy labeled by society as a trouble maker Lance developed into a passionate advocate for Maori health and in recognition for his achievements, Lance was named Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year 2014, received a Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award and Public Health Association Public Health Champion Award in 2013 and named TVNZ Maori of the Year 2012.

Lance made headlines in June 2012 when he left his former employer after a difference in patient philosophy; he believed in treating patients regardless of whether or not they could afford treatment. He left disillusioned with a system that failed to deliver the care needed for his patients and vowed to change the system for the better. Now ensconced in Northland, New Zealand Lance has set about making this happen. Harnessing the skills he acquired from his cultural heritage and medical training he and his wife Tracy established Navilluso Medical a healthcare company committing to developing innovative ways to ensure appropriate and quality health care reaches the right people at the right time in the right place.

Navilluso Medical established the MOKO (Manawa Ora, Korokoro Owa, “Healthy Heart, Healthy Throat”) programme in 2012, a school based service focused on preventing rheumatic fever (potentially fatal) in mainly Maori children in and around Kaitaia. Moving this project into the digital age Navilluso Medical is pioneering the use of disruptive and innovative health technologies bridging the gap in healthcare that exists for vulnerable communities in particular children. This programme iMOKO has its origins in rural Northland but has a vision of providing services to 300,000 across the country in the next 3 years (2019). iMOKO is currently in 25 schools, Kohanga Reo (Maori immersions language nests) and early childhood centres from Northland to Auckland.

In 2013 he established The MOKO Foundation a registered charitable trust that works to change the world starting with the Far North of NZ. His aim to support and empower communities with a particular focus on vulnerable children and young people with a particular interest in Education, Youth, Leadership and Health.