Concurrent Session Speakers

Dr Tanith Alexander

Dr Tanith Alexander is a specialist neonatal dietitian at Middlemore Hospital. Tanith is actively involved in clinical research, has co-authored several academic articles and is the principal investigator of the DIAMOND trial. 

Tanith is the current chair of the Australasian Neonatal Dietitians' Network and a member of the steering group establishing National Neonatal Nutrition guidelines for Aotearoa.

Priscilla Bilby

Nurse Specialist - Family Violence Intervention Team | Te Puaruruhau | Puāwaitahi

Priscilla is a Nurse Specialist working as a FV Co-ordinator at Te Toka Tumai .

Alongside her fulltime work, Priscilla is an accredited trainer for Tautoko Mai (Tauranga Sexual Harm Support) under the global ‘Safe & Together Institute’, a child-centred model that provides a framework for partnering with FV survivors and intervening with users of violence to enhance the safety and wellbeing of children.  

Jane Canning

Jane Canning is a Neonatal Fellow at KidzFirst Middlemore, and a PhD candidate at The University of Auckland. Her doctoral studies focus on caffeine and doxapram treatment in preterm neonates, including a sub-study within the nationwide clinical trial “The Latte Trial: Caffeine to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants born late preterm.”

Dr Mathew Farry

Managing Director, Courageous Conversation South Pacific Institute®

For 25 years, Mathew’s personal and professional purpose has been building meaningful connections between individuals, organisations and communities that transcend historical, national, ethnic, racial and religious differences. His focus has been partnering with individuals and organisations to build equitable inclusion through systemic transformation. He has supported numerous leaders and organisations to unearth and navigate the historical, cultural and racial differences that make a difference in people’s lives. He has worked extensively, as a leader, educator, researcher and consultant in the field of migration, settlement and resettlement, intercultural communication and relations, anti-racism, and equity and inclusion in organisational development.

Dr Shaun Grant

Shaun is a General Paediatrician at Gisborne Hospital where he is passionate about working collaboratively to improve the health and wellbeing of tamariki and rangatahi living in Tairāwhiti.

His special interest is Paediatric Cardiology and Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD).

In 2021 he established the RHD screening program for the East Coast to enable the early detection of RHD in 11 and 12 year old tamariki.

Raewyn McKenzie

Raewyn McKenzie is a Hospital Play Specialist at Kidz First, working alongside whaanau in both Neonatal and Paediatric wards. With a strong background in early childhood education, she brings expertise in child development, therapeutic play, and family-centred care. Raewyn is passionate about walking alongside families and will share one whaanau’s NNU story.

Sara Meyer, Parent to Parent NZ

Sara Meyer is a researcher for Parent-to-Parent New Zealand. She holds a Master’s degree in psychology from the University of Auckland and was diagnosed Autistic in 2019.

Alongside colleagues, Sara wrote the About Autism in Childhood booklet in 2023, a resource for families of children with a new diagnosis of autism. She is passionate about sharing evidence-based information and lived experience of autism with Autistic people, their families, and the professionals who work with them.

Amanda (Mandy) Meys

Amanda (Mandy) Meys is a paediatric physiotherapist and researcher passionate about early intervention in childhood pain.

As director of Nurture Paediatrics in Tauranga and an AUT doctoral candidate, she champions holistic, culturally responsive care that empowers families. Mandy advocates for quality child service provision and believes every clinical interaction is an opportunity to foster lifelong health.

Dr Lindsay Mildenhall

Lindsay is a Consultant Neonatologist at Counties Manukau, with interests in Neonatal Echocardiography and Neonatal Resuscitation evidence evaluation. He has represented the Paediatric Society on the New Zealand Resuscitation Council since 1999.

He was an ILCOR Neonatal Resuscitation worksheet author for the 2010 review, and a Topic Co-Chair from 2015-2020. Together with his Australian equivalent he co-authors the Neonatal Resuscitation guidelines for Australasia.

Kat Poi

Tainui; Te Arawa; Tonga

Programme Manager / Lead Equity Transformation Specialist, Indigenous

Kat Poi is an educator, speaker sovereign story-teller and emotive intellectual. She has leadership and governance experience in mainstream higher education, prison education and training, and Māori-medium primary and secondary education settings. Currently, she is Programme Manager and Lead Equity Transformation Specialist – Indigenous for Courageous Conversation South Pacific Institute and co-director of the Courageous Conversation Aotearoa Foundation. Her specialist areas of work are in racial equity transformation, anti-racist adult professional learning, development and coaching and anti-racist programme design and delivery.

Laura Rensford

Laura Rensford is an advanced paediatric physiotherapist at Kidz First, Counties Manukau, specialising in respiratory care for children. She works across hospital, community, and school settings supporting children with complex respiratory needs.

Laura is completing a PhD investigating the effectiveness of school-based physiotherapy airway clearance programmes for children with bronchiectasis.

Dr Kylie Salt

Kylie Salt is a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Specialist and the Clinical Lead for Ultrasound at Starship Children’s Emergency Department. She undertook a Fellowship in Sydney in Ultrasound where she achieved credentialing through the Australian Society for Ultrasound Medicine (ASUM) in many point of care ultrasound (POCUS) applications. 

Kylie is a member of the Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Group (EMUGs), and the Australia and New Zealand Paediatric Emergency Medicine Point of Care Ultrasound (ANZP2) network. 

Professor Gillian Whalley

Professor Gillian Whalley is an echocardiographer and clinical researcher at the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand) with interests in health equity; applying echocardiography in different ethnic groups; rheumatic heart disease; echocardiography linked to prognosis; and indexing heart size for body composition.

Her PhD thesis (2006) evaluated the role of echocardiography in the management of patients with heart failure. Gillian has led several multi-centre international collaborative projects to show the independent clinical value of echo measurements.

Currently, she balances clinical work with her academic role at the University of Otago in Dunedin. She started working in research in 1990, completed a PhD in Medicine in 2006 and has co-authored approximately 200 peer-reviewed papers and her H-index is 38.  ORCID link: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5713-6967 She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Australasian Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine and serves on several other journal boards, including BMJ Open Heart, Heart, Lung & Circulation.

More speakers to be announced shortly.