National Ethics Advisory Committee
Kāhui Matatika o te Motu
NEAC has up to 12 members who are appointed by the Minister of Health for a term of up to three years.
The members of NEAC are representative of a broad range of disciplines, professions and interests. Members bring expertise in ethics, health and disability research, health service provision and leadership, public health, epidemiology, law, Māori health and consumer advocacy.
Current members of NEAC are listed below.
Professor John McMillanMembership role: Health Research Council nominee
John is a Professor at the Bioethics Centre at Otago University. He has served on a number of ethics, policy and advisory groups in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, including the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report, Ethical Issues and Dementia.
His academic interests include research ethics, the methods of ethics and mental health ethics. Along with Alison Douglass and Greg Young, he is an author of the Assessment of mental capacity: A New Zealand guide for doctors and lawyers (VUP, 2020). His most recent monograph is The Methods of Bioethics: an Essay in Metabioethics (OUP 2018).
He is Editor in Chief of The Journal of Medical Ethics and a member of the National Screening Advisory Committee.
Appointed August 2021.
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Associate Professor Vanessa JordanMembership role: Epidemiologist
Vanessa is an epidemiologist/methodologist specialising in trial design, biostatistics, systematic reviews and epidemiology. Vanessa holds a doctorate in epidemiology and biochemistry from the University of Otago and currently works as a senior research fellow at the University of Auckland and is academic coordinator for the post graduate paper on systematic review methodology run at the School of Population Health. As a methods specialist she works with researchers in public health, mental health, education and clinical medicine, and as such works with both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Vanessa also holds the position of New Zealand Cochrane Fellow. Cochrane is an international charity organisation with a vision of a world of improved health where decisions about health and health care are informed by high-quality, relevant and up-to-date synthesized research evidence. As part of this organisation she is an internationally recognised trainer in the methods used to complete Cochrane systematic reviews and holds an elected position on the international Cochrane Council.
Appointed 26 May 2020.
Nora ParoreMembership role: Health Researcher
Nora Parore has whakakapapa links to Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai, Te Roroa, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa. Nora is an experienced and practising community pharmacist with post graduate clinical qualifications; a Māori health research fellow at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington and a current doctoral candidate researching policy and health service development in the pharmacy sector for whānau Māori. As the committed member and past Vice President of the Māori Pharmacists' Association, Nora is able to share her varied work experience in the sector with her peers. Nora, her husband, and her son live in Te Whanganui a Tara.
Appointed August 2021.
Shannon HanrahanMembership role: Te Ao Māori perspectives
Shannon returned in 2020 to New Zealand from the United Kingdom after running his own public health consultancy business providing policy advice and commissioning support to clients in government, the National Health Service, provider, and voluntary and community sectors. Shannon was the public health advisor to the United Kingdom government’s Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and was involved in several United Kingdom human rights campaigns such as marriage equality and improving access for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for men-who-have-sex-with-men. Shannon currently holds the position of Executive Chair of KŌ Kollective Trust in Opotiki which has a focus ensuring local public institutions (local government, schools, health and social services and funders etc) are co-designed, co-developed and co-delivered around the needs, hopes and aspirations of local people and whānau for whom these institutions are intended to serve and, ultimately benefit.
Appointed August 2021.
Dr Hansa PatelMembership role: Health Researcher
Hansa is a science technician involved in Clinical Research, and provides coordination duties for a family-run paediatric health service. After living and working around the world, she settled in New Zealand and recently completed a PhD in Clinical Research focusing on osteoporosis risk factors. Her clinical research interests include the voices of young people, bone health, habitual sporting activity, alcohol and smoking, dental fluorosis, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Appointed August 2021.
Membership role: Consumer perspectives
Rochelle is a bioethicist who specialises in advising on ethical issues in health research, particularly the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence in healthcare.
She was previously a partner at law firm Bell Gully and worked closely with Pharmac, the Ministry of Health and others. Rochelle has been a member of the Clinical Ethics Advisory Group at Capital & Coast DHB, the Northern A Health and Disability Ethics Committee and the Covid-19 Algorithms Governance Group established by the Ministry of Health. She was also a member of the expert Working Party convened to update the National Ethical Health Research Standards. More recently she has consulted on the legal and ethical issues raised by genetics and genomics research, and digital pathology. Her most recent appointment is membership of the National AI and Algorithm Expert Advisory Group for Manatū Hauora.
Appointed December 2021.
Edmond CarrucanMembership role: Legal perspectives
Ngāti Hako, Tainui, Ngāti Porou
Edmond is a promising Māori legal academic and has expertise in Tikanga Māori.
Edmond was formerly employed as a Junior Crown Prosecutor at Meredith Connell. He is undertaking a PhD in Law.
Appointed December 2021.
Membership role: Te Ao Māori perspectives
Lindsey Te Ata o Tū MacDonald, Ngāi Tahu, is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Canterbury and a research associate of Kā Waimaero | Ngāi Tahu Centre. His early career was in New Zealand’s State Services Commission and Te Puni Kōkiri (Ministry of Maori Development). He completed his PhD while lecturing in the Māori department at the University of Canterbury. In 2008 he joined the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury.
In 2007, he became the Māori member of the University of Canterbury Human Ethics Committee and served as Chair between 2012 and 2016. He has been a member of the New Zealand Ethics Committee since 2013, a not-for-profit independent ethics committee assisting researchers unable to access University ethics committees, serving as Chair 2017-19. That committee is now the Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee, and Lindsey is co-chair of their management trust.
Appointed December 2021.
Membership role: Community perspectives
Maree grew up in Tairawhiti and initially worked in the forestry industry there and in the Bay of Plenty. As a management consultant in natural resources fields she helped governments, companies and community organisations with systems, asset evaluation, quality management and sustainable land use. She has lived and worked around the world with a focus on Australasia and South East Asia. She has a B. For. Sci. (First Class Hons), an MSc (Oxford) and an MBA (Melbourne).
In 2013 she and her son became sick with ME/CFS; they have remained disabled since that time. Maree is active in international advocacy related to post-infection conditions and consumer participation in health care management and research. She has contributed to the development of clinical guidelines and research programmes in a number of countries.
Dr Seini Taufa is a proud daughter of the Pacific with ties to Tonga, Fiji, and Wallis and Fatuna; she acknowledges her tupu’anga and the stepping stones laid by those who paved the way.
Seini is General Manager for Moana Research (Moana Connect), a Pacific-owned, led, and governed company in which she is a part owner and a founding member. She is also the Pacific Theme Lead for Growing up in New Zealand, the largest longitudinal study in New Zealand. Dr. Taufa was previously based at the University of Auckland, where she taught for over ten years within the departments of Social and Community Health and Pacific Health, School of Population Health. She has a mixed methods background (quantitative and qualitative research), and her areas of interest include Maternal and Paternal health, Social theories including unconscious bias, racism, and intersectionality.
Julia BlackMembership role: Consumer perspectives
Julia is currently writing her dissertation for a Masters in Bioethics and Health Law at the University of Otago, with a focus on ethical and legal issues in precision oncology and has a B. Health Sci (Health Promotion). Her professional interests include advocacy for cancer patients and their families as they navigate the complex treatment and surveillance options available in both the private and public healthcare systems. Her motivation to contribute to these areas was driven by the death of her husband Malcolm Black from colorectal cancer in 2019. Julia also has a strong interest in adapting existing clinical and research methods to better honour and respect the cultural values and beliefs of Māori. She is also the consumer representative on the Dunedin Colorectal Cohort governance committee.
Appointed September 2023.
Tania MoerenhoutTania Moerenhout is a general practitioner and Lecturer at the Bioethics Centre of the University of Otago in Ōtepoti Dunedin. She combines academic work with a part-time clinical position. She graduated as a general practitioner in Belgium in 2009 and completed a PhD in philosophy in 2019 at Ghent University before moving to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020. Her doctoral research examined ethical challenges related to electronic health record use with a focus on the patient-provider relationship and patient empowerment.
Her current research interests are situated in the field of digital health ethics. She is researching ethical challenges of online consultations and the ethical implications of the use of assistive technology in older adults’ care. Next to this, she has an interest in the ethics of artificial intelligence use in health care, and virtual/augmented reality applications.
She is the convenor of the Digital Health Information Governance and Ethics paper in the Digital Health postgraduate programme at the University of Otago. Tania is Chair of the WONCA (World Organisation of Family Medicine) Working Party on Ethics and Professionalism and a member of the NZ Telehealth Forum Research, Audit, and Evaluation Working Group.
