Adolescent Health Research Group members

Associate Professor Terryann Clark

Terryann Clark (Ngapuhi) is a registered comprehensive nurse with extensive experience in youth health, community health, sexual health, health promotion, youth mental health and Māori health. She works part time as a senior lecturer. She is a founding member of the Adolescent Health Research Group (AHRG) and was the principal investigator of the Youth'12 national youth health and wellbeing survey in secondary schools. She currently leads an HRC project exploring the influence of whanaungatanga on Māori youth outcomes, and co-leads Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey with Dr Terry Fleming from the University of Victoria. Her research can be found on her Research Gate profile.
Twitter: @nurseDrTC

Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath

Jemaima Tiatia-Seath is the Co-Head of School, Te Wānanga o Waipapa, School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies, University of Auckland. She is of Samoan descent and has a public health background. She was one of six panellists on the New Zealand Government’s 2018 Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry. Her research interests include: Pacific Studies, mental health, wellbeing, suicide prevention and postvention, youth development, Pacific health inequities.

Dr John Fenaughty

John Fenaughty is a Senior Lecture in the School of Social Work, Human Services and Counselling. John's research revolves around wellbeing, victimisation and stigma for children and young people, particularly those who are sex, gender and sexuality diverse. He is particularly interested in bullying prevention, digital wellbeing, and in factors that enable schools and higher education institutions to be places where all students can thrive.

Dr Pat Bullen

Pat Bullen is a Senior Lecturer in youth development and youth mentoring at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Pat’s research and teaching focus on the factors that contribute to thriving during adolescence, particularly during times of transition. Central to Pat’s work is how research can be applied to enhance the human condition, by informing policy and practice. Pat is also the Co-Director (with Dr Kelsey Deane) of Campus Connections Aotearoa – Tūhono Aiopīpī, a therapeutic mentoring program that is embedded within several service-learning courses offered through the Faculty of Education and Social Work and serves young people who have been alienated from mainstream education in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Kelsey Deane

Kelsey Deane is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work in the Faculty of Education and Social Work where she conducts Positive Youth Development and program evaluation research. She is primarily interested in research focused on the features of effective youth development programmes and services and young people’s relationships with non-parental adults. Kelsey is also the Co-Director (with Dr Pat Bullen) of Campus Connections Aotearoa – Tūhono Aiopīpī, a therapeutic mentoring program that is embedded within several service-learning courses offered through the Faculty of Education and Social Work and serves young people who have been alienated from mainstream education in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Roshini Peiris-John

Roshini Peiris-John is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Her research reflects a keen interest in inequities that challenge the health and wellbeing of our minority communities (i.e. immigrant youth, people living with disability) and in the exploration of how the notions of identity, individual expressions, sense of belonging and resilience facilitate and challenge our youth. She currently co-leads the School Environment Survey 2019 (referred to as the School Climate Surveys in 2007 and 2012) with Dr John Fenaughty from the School of Social Work, Human Services and Counselling.  

Associate Professor Simon Denny

Simon Denny is an Adolescent and Young Adult Physician who is the Director of the Mater Young Adult Health Centre, Brisbane Australia. He trained as a Paediatrician in New Zealand and has worked for over 18 years with adolescents and young adults at the Centre for Youth Health in South Auckland. He was the Principal Investigator of Youth’07 which was New Zealand’s second National Youth Health and Wellbeing survey. He has published extensively on youth health issues in New Zealand and was past chairs of the Adolescent Health Research Group and Society of Youth Health Professionals Aotearoa New Zealand. He brings a clinical and epidemiological focus on youth health issues, especially around risk taking behaviours, wellbeing and youth appropriate health services.

Associate Professor Melody Smith

Melody Smith is Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research) for the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on understanding relationships between neighbourhood environments and health. Aspirations for neighbourhoods where children can be independently mobile, where people can get around safely by walking and cycling, and where social and physical well-being is prioritised and facilitated are key drivers of her work. Her research can be found on her ResearchGate profile.

Dr Lara Greaves

Lara Greaves (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kuri) is a lecturer in New Zealand Politics and Public Policy at the University of Auckland. She teaches and researches in Māori and New Zealand politics. Her specific interests include Māori ethnic identity, sexuality and gender, survey methods, and political participation and empowerment.  

Dr Bridget Farrant

Bridget is a senior lecturer in the University of Auckland Department of Paediatrics, with responsibility for teaching population youth health. She also works as an Adolescent and Young Adult Physician at Kidz First Centre for Youth Health in Counties Manukau. Her clinical and research interests focus on young people with chronic health conditions or symptoms, youth appropriate health services and promoting wellness in young people.

Associate Professor Jennifer Utter​

Jennifer Utter is an honorary Associate Professor at the School of Population Health, University of Auckland. She has been a member of the Adolescent Health Research Group since 2003. Her primary research interests are in understanding how the food-related behaviours of young people affect their health and wellbeing. Particular areas of interest include family meals, food security, temporal trends in youth body size, weight control behaviours and how nutrition relates to emotional wellbeing.

Kristy Kang

Kirsty is a Master of Health Sciences candidate, Research Delivery Coordinator for the Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey and the primary contact person for school liaison. Kristy’s background is in Public Health. In her Masters research, she is exploring how caring for an older family/whānau member impacts caregivers’ employment status. Kristy has research experience in palliative/end-of-life care, healthy ageing and sexual health of minority women living in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also passionate about youth mental health and the intersectionality of identities.

Lovely Dizon

Lovely is a Research Assistant for the Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey and her background is in population health. In her PhD research, she is focusing on how Asian adolescent migrants negotiate their cultural identity and the implications of this on their health and wellbeing. Lovely has research experience in youth mentoring, palliative/end of life care, and meaningful participation for older people.

Dr Terry (Theresa) Fleming

Terry is a Senior lecturer in population health at the School of Health, Victoria University of Wellington.  Her research focus is on scalable ways to improve youth health and youth mental health, including via digital technology.  Terry is the principal investigator for the Integrating Survey and Intervention Research for Youth Health Gains research project and co-principal investigator for Youth19. Her research can be found on her Research Gate profile.

Kylie Sutcliffe​

Kylie is a clinical psychology and PhD student at the Schools of Psychology and Health at Victoria University of Wellington. Her research focuses on promising directions for improving young people’s access to mental health services in Aotearoa New Zealand. Kylie is a research assistant on the Youth19 project, where she contributes to stakeholder communications and outputs relating to mental health. 

Associate Professor Sue Crengle

Sue is from Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu Iwi. She obtained her medical, MPH, and PhD degrees from The University of Auckland and holds specialty qualifications in general practice and public health medicine. Sue was a recipient of a Harkness Fellowship in Health Policy 1999–2000. Her research interests include health services research, inequities in health, and child and youth health. Sue works one day a week as a GP in Invercargill and the rest of the time is Associate Professor Hauora Māori in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, Dunedin. 

Dr Jude Ball

Dr Jude Ball is a Research Fellow in the Public Health Department at the University of Otago, Wellington. In 2019 she completed her PhD which used Youth 2000 data to explore recent declines in adolescent risk behaviours (smoking, binge drinking, cannabis use and sexual behaviour) and the possible drivers of this shift in youth behaviour. Jude has a background in Critical Psychology, Health Promotion, and Health Impact Assessment. Her current research interests are focused on adolescent and young adult health and wellbeing trends, and how these are affected by changes in social, physical and policy environments. 

Dr Mathijs Lucassen

Mathijs Lucassen is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health at The Open University (UK) and an Honorary Academic in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland. He originally trained as an occupational therapist and has previously worked in both in-patient and out-patient child and adolescent mental health services.  His research interests are primarily focused on the health and wellbeing of sexuality and gender diverse young people and on topics related to child and adolescent mental health.  

Dr Sonia Lewycka

Sonia is a senior epidemiologist, currently based at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam. She has worked on population-based studies in maternal, child and adolescent health for over 15 years. She is interested in population health surveillance, the promotion of public health interventions, and their coverage, equity and impact. Sonia maintains a strong involvement with research in New Zealand, including exploring cultural identity, whanaungatanga and health inequalities among Māori and migrant youth.