Dr Samantha (Sam) Murton is a working Wellington GP and Senior Lecturer and Trainee Intern Co-Convenor at University of Otago, Wellington. She was the College’s first medical director and is passionate about supporting general practice. Sam advocates for the profession at a national level, and she does this while maintaining practical experience that keeps her advice relevant and realistic. Sam has a fascination for the use of art in medicine – using drawings as a way of simplifying complex medical information for patients. In 2015 she published her book, Minor Surgery: A Visual Guide for Office-Based Surgery from Beginner to Expert. The book is based on her 14 years working in the Hutt Valley Plastic Surgery Unit and is filled with her own watercolour illustrations of procedures. In the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Sam was appointed as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her services to medical education, especially general practice. In all Sam’s roles she champions collaboration and transparency. She is willing and equipped to represent the challenges that face general practitioners and their patients, bring GPs together nationally, and champions the role of the expert general practitioner who works in the broader primary care team.

Dr Mataroria Lyndon (MBChB, MPH, PhD) Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Wai, Waikato Dr Mataroria Lyndon is Deputy Chair of Te Hiringa Hauora Health Promotion Agency and a Board member of the Māori Health Authority, Northland District Health Board, Aktive, and Pūtahi Manawa Aotearoa Centre of Research Excellence. He is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the University of Auckland and co-founder and Clinical Director of Tend Health. You will also find him presenting the TVNZ health series 'The Check Up' and he was previously Equity Lead at Mahitahi Hauora and a medical lead for Māori health at Counties Manukau DHB. Dr Lyndon completed his Master of Public Health at Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar, and his PhD is focused on medical education. He was also awarded the Deloitte IPANZ Public Sector Young Professional of the Year 2016.

Becky is passionate about advocating for clinical professions across the health and disability system, particularly within the context of digital health and innovations. Working as Clinical Director with Data and Digital (iHNZ) and studying for her Doctorate, she applies her experience in clinical informatics and digital health to provide strategic clinical leadership for the Hira Programme. Becky is an Occupational Therapist, Associate Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, Ministry of Health Clinical Liaison for CiLN, and was elected chair of the Health Informatics New Zealand Board for 2019 - 2021. She is driven by the belief in effective leadership, robust governance, and collaborative partnership across our services to achieve lasting change. Becky has provided leadership to the co-design, implementation and change management of digital solutions across primary and secondary services. She co-authored the Allied Health National Data Set Standard (2018), and the 2020 position statements for Allied Health Leading Data and Digital Driven Services and Clinical Informatics Leadership. She also co-authored the initial data set standard for Community Based Assessment Centres during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Becky was awarded the inaugural Clinical Informatics Leadership Award 2019 recognising the achievements of a clinician working in Digital health in New Zealand and the Professional Achievement Award (OTANZ) 2020.

Ruth is an Emergency Physician and Rural Hospitalist with an interest in Health Technology, she is the current Chief Clinical Officer of Whakarongorau Aotearoa which supplies MoH funded National Telehealth Services. She attended Auckland School of Medicine as an adult student graduating with her MBChB in 1999 after which she worked in the Outback of Australia before returning to New Zealand to spend a short time in General Practice. Ruth completed her Emergency training in the Auckland area receiving Fellowship in 2007 and was grandparented into Fellowship of the Division of Rural Hospital Medicine in 2013. Ruth holds postgraduate qualifications in both musculoskeletal medicine and ultrasound and has worked as an Emergency Physician and Rural Hospitalist for the Waikato District Hospital from 2007-2021. Whilst at the Waikato DHB Ruth held successive leadership roles as Clinical Director of Thames Emergency Department, Clinical Director of Thames Hospital and Community and as Clinical Director of Information Services and Virtual Healthcare. Ruth is a Certified Health Informatician and a Fellow of Health Informatics New Zealand, she has a keen interest in breaking down barriers to access to healthcare and sees Digital Technology as playing a pivotal role in healthcare transformation. She was a founding member of the NZ Telehealth Forum and the Clinical Informatics Lead Network. She has been the Chair of the New Zealand Telehealth Leadership Group since 2017.

Lesley McCowan is a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland, and was awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Women’s Health in 2016. She was the first obstetrician to be appointed to a part time clinical academic role at the university of Auckland in 1986. With good support networks she has successfully combined her busy career with family life. She was head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland for 11 years and during that time has mentored a number of junior colleagues into academic roles. She has had a research career in perinatal medicine spanning three decades with an overarching goal of improving health outcomes for mothers and babies. She has established an international reputation in her research fields and leads a translational stillbirth research program which has the broad aim of identifying modifiable risk factors for stillbirth, with the goal of reducing stillbirth in New Zealand and internationally. She has published more than 250 original scientific papers and received awards for her research.

Lupe Taumoepeau is a Vascular and Transplant surgeon at Wellington Hospital and Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago. She is the first New Zealand female vascular surgeon and only Pacific Island vascular surgeon in Australasia. She received her fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2014 after completing training throughout New Zealand and Queensland, Australia. Lupe is actively involved in mentoring Pacific Island students and female junior doctors considering a career in surgery, and has a strong interest in prevocational medical education.

Emma Espiner (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) is a PGY1 house officer at Middlemore Hospital. Emma hosts the RNZ podcast on Māori health equity, Getting Better which won best podcast at the Voyager media awards in 2021. She won Voyager Opinion Writer of the Year in 2020. Emma's writing features at Newsroom.co.nz, Stuff.co.nz, The Guardian, NZ Herald and in academic and literary journals.

Originally from the UK, Orna has been working as a GP in Auckland with a particular focus on women’s health and contraception, since 2011. She has held a variety of leadership roles including Clinical Director of East Health PHO and has been the Clinical Director of Primary Care Women’s Health at Auckland District Health Board since January 2019. She is an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and is on the Board of the newly formed New Zealand College of Sexual and Reproductive Health. She is firmly of the belief that collaboration, teamwork, kindness and a sense of humour can solve most problems and is currently trying to apply this philosophy to the issues of women’s access to contraception and abortion services in Aotearoa.

Originally from the UK, Orna has been working as a GP in Auckland with a particular focus on women’s health and contraception, since 2011. She has held a variety of leadership roles including Clinical Director of East Health PHO and has been the Clinical Director of Primary Care Women’s Health at Auckland District Health Board since January 2019. She is an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and is on the Board of the newly formed New Zealand College of Sexual and Reproductive Health. She is firmly of the belief that collaboration, teamwork, kindness and a sense of humour can solve most problems and is currently trying to apply this philosophy to the issues of women’s access to contraception and abortion services in Aotearoa.