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 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.
Co-convenors:
Summer Wright
[email protected]
Summer (Ngāti Maniapoto) is a dietitian and a PhD candidate at Massey University. Based in Papaioea, she is currently investigating the opportunities for Māori businesses in plant-based foods. Summer is passionate about 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:
Danielle Newton
[email protected]
Dani (Patuharakeke, Ngāpuhi / Scottish) has a background in education for sustainability and community climate action. She has worked across local councils, kaupapa Māori, and membership-based NGOs in Tāmaki Makaurau. She now lives in Whakatū Nelson, growing her skills in natural building and permaculture practices. Dani loves yoga, sunrise walks, and spending time in the maara kai followed by the kitchen.
Executive Board Members:
Dr. Dermot Coffey, Organisations Membership Officer
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.
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.
Liz Springford, Policy Development Coordinator
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.
Angad Chauhan, Young Professionals Rep
Angad is a graduate passionate about sustainability and climate change advocacy. He has started a student-led sustainability organization by the name of Sustainability Social Group (SSG) in Wellington. The group has led street cleaning initiatives for which it has received the Green Your Scene Kōwhai award from the University of Otago. He is also a member of the sustainability network of Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast, and Hutt Valley, and is trying to incorporate sustainability and climate education into the medical school curriculum. In his spare time, he enjoys volunteering, traveling, and cooking.
Corbin Whanga, Treasurer
Corbin (Waikato Tainui) is a Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Health, working in the Māori health directorate. He is passionate about protecting ocean health and how people can benefit from communing with Tangaroa. Corbin has experience in communications, community engagement, and hauora whānau. In his spare time, he enjoys diving for a pāua or 10.
Vicktoria Blake, Global Health Rep
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.
Steve Grimson, Transport Working Group Lead
Steve (Pākehā/Australian) is a general practice registrar 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. He acts as a sustainability advocate for Tāmaki Health and Procare. In his spare time (of which he would like more), you will find him tramping, cycling, or scuba diving.
Other team members:
Dr. Matt Jenks, Membership Officer and OraTaiao liaison for Sustainable Healthcare Aotearoa (SHA)
[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.
Dr. Graeme Lindsay, Web Officer
[email protected]
Graeme is a public health physician and lecturer in environmental health. Research and interests have focused on environmental health, particularly climate change, transport, air pollution, cycling and health, and health sector sustainability. Executive board member for OraTaiao from its foundation in 2009 until 2015, Graeme has also been a board member for the Counties Manukau District Health Board Environmental Advisory Group.