OraTaiao: The Aotearoa NZ Climate and Health Council is a not-for-profit, politically non-partisan incorporated society. It is governed by an Executive Board of members typically including two Co-Convenors (one of whom is Māori) elected annually. Current membership of OraTaiao exceeds 1,000 health professionals, health students, and associate members.

Convenor:

Dr Summer Wright
[email protected]  

Summer (Ngāti Maniapoto) trained as a dietitian and is a public health researcher focused on climate justice, health equity, and food sovereignty. She has also worked in disability as a youth worker and support worker. Summer has a few creative pursuits and likes to spend time outside and with animals.  

Coordinator:

Marnie Prickett
[email protected]

Marnie (Pākehā) has had a varied working life with a background in agricultural science, ecology and public health, and the common thread throughout being freshwater. She is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara where, in both paid and voluntary work, she advocates for policy that protects and restores the natural environment to support our health and well-being. 

Executive Board Members: 

Romelli Rodriguez-Jolly, Secretary

Romelli (Pākehā/Andean) grew up in Kirikiriroa Hamilton and is an Occupational Therapist/Kaiwhakaora Ngangahau working for mental health services in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. They are passionate about cultivating respectful relationship with Pachamama~Papatūānuku~Mother Earth and interested in how people and communities experience and adjust to the everyday impacts of climate change on wellbeing. Romelli has an interest in plant-based eating, playing folk music, and enjoys biking.

Dr Lisa Mcilwraith

Lisa (Pākehā) grew up in Tamaki Makaurau is currently working as a General Practitioner in Tasman. Her studies in Anthropology, Medicine, Psychiatry and more recently Public Health, underpin a deep desire to understand how the environment we live in impacts on our health and wellbeing. In the face of increasing impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, Lisa believes health professionals have  a duty to advocate for planetary health and educate communities about the connection between planetary and human health. In her spare time Lisa escapes to outdoors to enjoy a multitude of outdoor pursuits including hiking, cycling and horse riding. She also has a love of the arts and anything that allows humans to express their creativity. 

Dr Dermot Coffey

Dermot is a General Practitioner based in Christchurch. His interests include the role of GPs as environmental advocates, the social determinants of health, and active transport. In his spare time, he loves to run and cycle in the Port Hills.

Liz Springford, Policy Development Lead

Liz is impatient for a fairer healthy Aotearoa Net Zero next decade - calculating how fast our country can seriously share in keeping global warming within the humanly-adaptable 1.5 degrees limit. She is a Wellington-based climate policy analyst, parent of three, and proud grandma/lola. As a descendant of Celtic arrivals long ago, she is increasingly aware of the terrible costs of ongoing failures to respect tikanga. Liz enjoys collaborating, strategy, writing submissions and media releases, policy (Masters of Public Policy, BA – Economics & English Lit), community cars for hourly hire, and safe cycleway networks.

Dr George Laking

George (Te Whakatōhea) is a Medical Oncologist in Auckland and Northland. George's involvement in tobacco control spurred an interest in the motivated denial of science. He sees a parallel between people’s adjustment to major illness and society’s adjustment to looming environmental catastrophe. Outside of his clinical and advocacy work, he likes to get away on bike-packing trips.

Isabella Lenihan-Ikin

Isabella Lenihan-Ikin (she/her) is a Rhodes Scholar currently studying at the University of Oxford. Her PhD research looks at the occupational health impacts of climate change in Aotearoa, through a just transition lens. Prior to this, she was a union organiser and campaigner, which included working as a political organiser at NZEI Te Riu Roa and serving as the National President of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations. Isabella also holds a Masters of Science from the University of Oxford, as well as a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws from Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington.

Michael Brenndorfer 

Michael works as a Youth Health Nurse Practitioner. He is interested in health and climate justice, specifically from Youth Health and a Te Tiriti-based Positive Youth Development perspective.  He has previously mobilised large events for climate change, including a 500-strong bicycle ride for 350.org, and has contributed to policy submissions on behalf of the NZ Nurses Organisation on carbon emissions.

Vicktoria Blake, Global Health Lead

Viewing her work through a national perspective, Vicktoria engages both regionally and locally within environmental spheres, spanning climate risk and adaptation, biodiversity, transportation, and circular solutions. Armed with a bachelor’s in business management and a master’s in environmental management, Vicktoria brings a well-rounded approach to organisational sustainability, with a resolute commitment to prioritising te taiao. Driven by a profound concern for the future of her mokopuna, Vicktoria adopts a forward-looking, solutions-oriented stance towards resilience, sustainability, and emissions reduction. She advocates strongly for integrating a health and wellbeing perspective into all policy and strategy. Vicktoria is dedicated to ensuring that Te Whatu Ora takes proactive measures to mitigate its contributions to climate change and environmental degradation.

Dr Steve Grimson, Transport Lead

Steve (Pākehā/Australian) is a GP in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is passionate about contributing to the rapid transition to a just and regenerative economy. Steve advocates for urban spaces that are sustainable and oriented around the needs of people and communities, as well as healthy and regenerative food systems. He believes the healthcare sector has a crucial role to play in promoting healthy and sustainable environments and lifestyles. In his spare time (of which he would like more), you will find him tramping, cycling, or scuba diving.

Susanna Lees Watts

Susanna is a paediatric registrar based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her medical interests include paediatrics, infectious diseases and global health, all areas increasingly shaped by the impacts of climate change. She is passionate about health equity and the connection between the environment and health. She loves being outdoors, be it tramping or at the beach.

Other team members:

Dr Matt Jenks, Membership Officer
[email protected]

Matt is an anesthetist at Dunedin Hospital and a past OraTaiao Executive board member. He has long had an interest in environmentally sustainable healthcare practice, initially focussing on operating theatre recycling and more recently the contribution of healthcare to the problem of climate change. He runs his Hilux Surf on waste vegetable oil from the local Japanese restaurant.