APGANZ & NZCSRH Conference 2024

Keynote Speakers

Dr Stacey-Leigh Rubin (she/her)

Dr Stacey-Leigh Rubin (she/her) is an Ob/Gyn and Complex Family Planning specialist who is dedicated to providing compassionate patient-centered and trauma-informed care in all trimesters. She is also a passionate advocate for abortion access and de-stigmatization.

Stacey received her Medical Degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Dr. Rubin completed a Masters of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and completed her fellowship in Complex Family Planning at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

She currently works as an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood of Maryland and at Partners in Abortion Care, specializing in late 2nd and 3rd trimester procedures.

Dr Karen Joseph (she/her)

Dr Karen Joseph (she/her) has completed specialist training and registration in the scopes of Pain Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Sexual and Reproductive Health, and is the only doctor in Australasia with this broad expertise.

Karen also works as a specialist at Christchurch Women’s Hospital- where she has set up and runs the Pelvic Pain Clinic. She has been involved with the development of the Ministry of Health care pathway document Diagnosis and Management of Endometriosis in New Zealand, a RANZCOG online education programme for doctors and tool for patients about best management of endometriosis, and the Mesh Injury expert advisory group.

Dr Patricia Lohr

Dr. Patricia A. Lohr is the Director of Research and Innovation at British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the largest independent abortion provider in the United Kingdom. Patricia leads the development of new care models and, with her team at the Centre for Reproductive Research & Communication, delivers a research agenda to further access evidence-based reproductive healthcare and choices. Prior to this, from 2007-2024, she was Medical Director at BPAS.

Patricia is widely published and has contributed to clinical guidelines on abortion and contraception for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), World Health Organization, Society of Family Planning, and National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). She serves as an Expert Advisor to NICE, Associate Editor of BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, Chair of British Society of Abortion Care Providers Education & Training Committee, and on the Advisory Group for Abortion Talk.

Patricia completed her medical education at the University of Southern California and trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Los Angeles County-Harbor UCLA Medical Center. This was followed by a Fellowship in Family Planning & Contraceptive Research at the University of Pittsburgh during which she was awarded a Masters Degree in Public Health. She is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians in Gynecologists and Fellow ad eundem of the RCOG. In 2015, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the FSRH.

Speakers

Dr Fiona Bach

Dr Fiona Bach is an obstetrician and gynaecologist with a special interest in urogynaecology.

This work involves general gynaecology as well as the medical and surgical treatment of prolapse and urinary incontinence. Her medical philosophy is that women should be in control of their own health and doctors should work alongside them to establish the best treatment outcomes available.

Dr Bach’s undergraduate medical training was completed at the University of Leeds in Yorkshire, UK. She continued her training in Yorkshire before taking up a position at London’s St George’s Hospital. She then volunteered in Ethiopia for six months, supporting the training programme at the University of Gondar Hospital. Fiona returned to the UK to undertake urogynaecology subspecialty training in Birmingham, before moving to Christchurch to work as an obstetrician and gynaecologist.

Suzanne Board MBA, BA (Hons), she/her
Inospire Limited

Suzanne has spent the majority of her career working with healthcare providers across primary, secondary, and community care to co-create new models of care and re-design health services to improve health outcomes. She is an experienced marketer for social good, with practical health change management expertise and has produced award-winning and innovative initiatives. Her passion lies in bringing the community voice alongside health practitioners and being a catalyst for change.

Hailing from the UK, Suzanne worked with 21 primary care trusts, as well as regional and national health bodies on behaviour change campaigns spanning sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Suzanne made Aotearoa NZ her home in 2011, following in the footsteps of her grandparents who emigrated over half a century ago. She lives in Pāpāmoa in the Bay of Plenty with her 3 year old son and kiwi husband.

Suzanne started Inospire Limited, a social change agency, over 5 years ago to introduce participatory design practice to the commissioning and delivery of health services. Protected&Proud: an Aotearoa NZ contraception platform (www.protectedandproud.nz) was one of the first initiatives she designed and continues to lead its development alongside several partners and consumer representatives. In the SRH space, Inospire are also leading a new wāhine/women+ health service pilot and facilitating the development of a community-based gynaecology model of care in the Bay of Plenty.

Jacqueline Cavanagh

Jacqueline joined the NZCSRH board in 2020 as the consumer representative.

In addition to this, she is a Protected&Proud co-design team member, a consumer voice on the Contraception Advisory Committee, and a former executive committee member of ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa.

Jacqueline is a strong advocate and driver for change who is dedicated to ensuring that equitable and excellent sexual and reproductive healthcare services are readily available to all people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Laura Gemmell

Ka rere tāku manu ki ngā whenua o Kahungunu, Waikato, Ngaruāhine, me Tūwharetoa hoki. I am a māmā, a Māori health researcher, PhD student at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, and Senior Advisor within Te Whatu Ora. I am passionate about improving access to health care, supporting high need communities, striving for equitable health outcomes and te ao Māori.

Tania Huria
Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga ki Wharekauri

Tania (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga ki Wharekauri) is the Director of Hauora Māori and Equity at Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa and a Hon Associate Professor at the Māori Indigenous Health Innovation Department, Ōtakou Whakaihu Waka (The University of Otago, Christchurch). Tania has been involved in research and teaching with a focus on addressing Māori health inequities for 17 years. The findings of Tania’s PhD thesis have led to the design and development of the CONSIDER statement “the Consolidated criteria for strengthening reporting of health research involving Indigenous Peoples”. Which is used internationally by researchers and is listed on the EQUATOR network to enhance transparency of reporting of research involving Indigenous Peoples.

Tania sees her role at Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa as an opportunity to advocate for reproductive justice and sexual and reproductive equity in Aotearoa. Tania is a board member of the Tamai Foundation and is a māmā to two teenage tama and a fur baby.

Dr Jo Lambert (she/her/ia)
Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Mutunga

Jo started in Sexual and Reproductive Health in 2003, vocationally training in Family Planning and Reproductive Health. She is an accredited Medical and Forensic Examiner in Adult and Adolescent Sexual Assault using her expertise in therapeutic, trauma informed and hauora Māori models of care to support healing.

Jo Chairs the NZCSRH and is a Board member of the Council of Medical Colleges. She spends her time teaching and further developing culturally safe, haoura Māori and Te Tiriti informed ways of working in SRH in Aotearoa. In 2022, she became one of the first few Māori Health Leads at Te Toka Tumai Auckland Hospital using her clinical experience and Te Ao Maori lens to shape the future of community health services.

Jo took five years away from clinical medicine to parent her tamāhine (daughters),17 and 14, who continue to highlight the importance of and shape her thinking on the future of our mahi.

Katie McCullough

Katie is a Nurse Practitioner with a special interest in Women's Health, She serves as the Clinical Lead for the STIEF and is the co-acting Deputy Director for the Goodfellow Unit. In addition, she works as a NP in various capacities, including TWO Gynaecology Outpatients, Sexual Wellbeing, Auckland SAATs, Massey University and The University of Auckland.

Katie also serves on the boards of the College of Sexual and Reproductive Health, NZHF and APGANZ.

Dr Bronwyn Moore

Dr Bronwyn Moore is a Fellow of the CSRH and a current board member.

Bronwyn is a doctor at Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa where she is the Southern Region Family Violence Champion and a member of the Wellbeing Group. She is a LARC Trainer.

Bronwyn studied at the University of Otago and is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago.

Bronwyn's work at the local youth clinic sparked her interest in the trauma field.

Dr Megan Ogilvie

Dr Megan Ogilvie is a general and reproductive endocrinologist with ERH Associates – Endocrine and Reproductive Health.

Megan has worked in the area of menopause for the last 25-30 years and has watched the medical world tip upside down and the right way up over menopause management over this time. Megan is passionate about education of health practitioners and women around this very natural stage of life. Megan is keen that we encourage women to make proactively make their own informed decisions about their wellbeing.

Megan is Auckland trained, having completed her training in the United Kingdom. She worked with Fertility Associates for 25 years before setting up her new women’s health practice in Auckland. Megan also works with High Performance Sport New Zealand and is on the medical board of Talk Peach, a charity for gynaecological cancers.

Dr Susannah O'Sullivan

Dr Susannah O’Sullivan is a general and reproductive endocrinologist working at Greenlane Clinical Centre, Te Whatu Ora (Auckland).

Following her clinical training, she completed a PhD in Medicine with the Bone and Joint Research Group at the University of Auckland, and had an academic appointment as a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology. In these capacities she has published peer reviewed articles and book chapters, and has given presentations at local and international meetings.

Her current research interests include bone metabolism and bone diseases, functional hypothalamic amenorrhoea, transgender health and menopause. She has been involved in teaching health practitioners, and has contributed to public health initiatives in her capacity as a board member for the NZ Endocrine Society and Osteoporosis NZ.

She has an interest in promoting equity of access to and increased public awareness of healthcare options in reproductive endocrinology including menopause.

Helen Paterson

Helen is a skier and mountain biker who in her spare time is the Deputy Chair of the NZCSRH and was past Chair of APGANZ.

She also runs Te Waka Wahine Hauora: The Womans Health Bus (www.womanshealth.nz) providing SRH care closer to home, is Head of Section O&G Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago and an abortion provider for Te Whatu Ora Southern.

Melanie Pierson

Melanie is a scientific researcher and writer, with a background in molecular anthropology. In recent years Melanie has worked with Dr Helen Paterson and others at the University of Otago, and the NZ College of Sexual and Reproductive Health, on projects that focus on improving contraception and abortion care in Aotearoa.

Dr Simon Snook ONZM

Dr Simon Snook has been providing Abortion, Vasectomy and Sexual Dysfunction services in New Zealand for over 20 years.

Simon was awarded Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit in the Kings New Year Awards 2024 for services to Sexual and Reproductive Health.

He also has a sexual dysfunction YouTube channel thekiwisexdoctor.

Caryn Thomas

Caryn is a final year medical student and PhD candidate at the University of Otago in Ōtepoti/Dunedin.

Caryn's research focusses on combined oral contraceptive utilisation in Aotearoa. This includes the demographic and geographic distribution of users of these medications, how these medications are being used and how recent shortages have affected users.

Jess Tucker

Jess has worked in the field sexual assault and non-fatal strangulation/suffocation forensic medicine since 2012. Jess has a Masters in Forensic Medicine.

Jess has various roles within the organisation MEDSAC (Medical Sexual Assault Clinicians Aotearoa) who provide the training and accreditation of sexual assault and non-fatal strangulation/suffocation forensic clinicians in Aotearoa. ffected users.

Naomi Waldron

In 2012 I came to the Far North as a student midwife and felt that remote rural midwifery was definitely what I wanted to be doing. The beautiful weather and beaches also helped with that decision.

I grew up with 6 younger siblings, the last 3 were born at home and I was present at their births. At the time I didn’t realise it, but supporting physiological birth and women’s choices around birth was something that was really important to me and so becoming a midwife felt like a natural progression.

In 2013 I registered as a midwife and set up my LMC practice in Kaitaia. Being so far away from a secondary unit (2.5 hours by road in favourable conditions), I had many amazing and challenging experiences that I wouldn’t change at all. With a 97% vaginal birth rate, I really felt like I achieved what I set out to in supporting physiological birth.

I am now employed at our local primary unit, Kaitaia Maternity as the Diabetes Specialist Midwife which allows me to spend more time with my two boys ages 2 and 4.

More speakers to be announced soon.