Our clinical leadership team

As Tāngata o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, Ngāti Hāmoa, Laura is passionate about addressing the inequities in our healthcare system, and ensuring both clinical and whānau voices are at the heart of our service design and delivery. Laura is focused on the system capability we need to support our midwives throughout the motu providing care for women, pregnant people, pēpi, and whānau. She is excited about supporting inclusive, collaborative ways of working, empowering our kaimahi throughout our system, and a persistent focus on whānau voice and community need. 

Laura has spent over 20 years in healthcare as a midwife, in midwifery and maternity service development, and in leadership and advisory roles across Aotearoa. Laura has worked in national health workforce and service planning, employment relations, change management, as a clinical researcher and in rural health models of care redesign. She has worked with many District Health Boards across the motu, NGOs, regional and national organisations including DHB Shared Services, Health Workforce New Zealand, Health Quality and Safety Commission and the University of Auckland. Laura also served as an advisor to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on Te Pae Tata, the New Zealand Health Plan.

More recently, she held the position of General Manager National Hospital and Specialist Services and Acting Deputy Chief Executive Service Development and Relations at Te Aka Whai Ora | The Māori Health Authority.

Laura holds a Master of Public Health, a Master of Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Midwifery degree. She is a member of the New Zealand College of Midwives and a member of Hauora Taiwhenua – the Rural Health Network.

Dr Leeanne Fisher is a binationally trained consultant psychiatrist with more than 20 years’ experience in both New Zealand and Australian public mental health services.

Before this role, Leeanne held clinical leadership roles in Victorian services for the previous 12 years, most recently as Deputy Chief Psychiatrist in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division of Victoria’s Department of Health. Alongside this work, she also continued working part-time as a consultant psychiatrist in the Triage and Autism Assessment teams at Austin Health.

Her previous experience also includes seven years as clinical director of Child and Youth Mental Health Services in Melbourne.

A New Zealander by birth, Leeanne completed her initial medical training here, and her local work experience includes six years working as a psychiatrist with Capital & Coast District Health Board, providing specialist mental health care for young people.

Leeanne’s focus is on improving the access to and experience of high-quality care for New Zealanders, delivered as close to home as possible, with an emphasis on addressing health inequities particularly for Māori.

Nadine has a proven track record of strategic leadership, clinical expertise, and a deep commitment to advancing Māori health outcomes. Her previous role was as Chief Nursing Officer at Māori Health Authority.

The primary purpose of the National Chief Nurse role is to provide strong professional leadership for our highly valued nurses across the system, ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality care. This includes developing and maintaining the nursing workforce as well as increasing the proportion of Māori and Pacific nurses. As a member of the National Clinical Leadership Team, Nadine will help ensure that clinical advice and expertise underpins our strategic decisions, especially for service design and delivery.

Nadine’s previous experience includes roles as Clinical Chief Advisor Nursing at Manatū Hauora | Ministry of Health, and as Māori Clinical Nurse Specialist in Cancer Care at Capital & Coast DHB, supporting whānau Māori in cancer care pathways. She holds a Master of Health Sciences with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Nursing and is currently an adjunct teaching fellow at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Practice at Victoria University of Wellington.

Dr Sarah Jackson has more than 30 years’ experience working to improve quality and safety of care for patients and their whānau.

A qualified anaesthetist specialising in neuroanaesthesia, Sarah’s most recent role was Interim Chief Medical Officer at Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley. Sarah has led changes to models of care, and has established clinical governance boards at the district and regional level. She is chair of the Central Region Clinical Board, and anesthetic representative on the Cancer Services Planning – Surgical Services team, a group set up by Te Aho o Te Kahu, Cancer Control Agency, to look at how best to deliver surgical services to cancer patients in Aotearoa. Her previous research includes contributing to a study on ethnic disparities in postoperative mortality, with a specific focus on outcomes for Māori and non-Māori.

Sarah is responsible for providing professional leadership for all quality and patient safety, working in collaboration with other clinical leads at national, regional and local levels.

Jacqui is an experienced and impactful AHS&T leader with an international profile and extensive multi-professional networks. Her previous experience includes more than 10 years as a technical advisor to the World Health Organisation in Geneva, alongside working as Chief Health Professions Officer for the Scottish Government for 17 years.

Jacqui was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2015 for services to healthcare and health professions. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, a Doctor of Queen Margaret’s University, and holds a BSc and a Diploma in Occupational Therapy. She is a Registered Occupational Therapist in New Zealand and a Member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.

Jacqui was previously the Executive Director AHS&T for Waitaha and Te Tai o Poutini from 2018 - 2024. She is excited about the opportunities for working in partnership with primary care, public health and across the different clinical specialties to contribute to change, strengthen a multidisciplinary approach to care, support equity and improve health outcomes, aligned with Te Pae Tata. 

Dame Helen is a vastly experienced medical professional with decades of experience at all levels of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. Before coming to New Zealand, she was a Non-Executive Director at NHS England, a Professor of Medical Education in the University of Birmingham and a frontline NHS GP.

She was also Chair of the UK Academy of Medical Colleges from 2020-23, which is the overarching body for all UK and Ireland Medical Colleges.  During her time as Chair, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, she remained a frontline NHS General Practitioner and was awarded a DBE for services to General Practice in 2022.

Dame Helen was born in Wales and qualified in medicine from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, where she was president of the student union. Prior to training as a GP, she worked in obstetrics and gynaecology. 

In 2012 she became the Royal College of General Practitioners first female Honorary Treasurer and was elected to be their Chair in November 2016.

Dame Helen sat on several national advisory groups and boards in the UK, including the expert advisory group overseeing the National Frontier AI Security Institute. She was also a trustee at Macmillan Cancer and founding Chair of the National Academy for Social Prescribing, where she was actively involved in shaping the direction of social prescribing — establishing an academic foundation for the movement and forming alliances to increase its impact globally.

Dame Helen says that Te Pae Tata, our drive to achieve Pae Ora, and our four Pou of Te Mauri o Rongo align closely with her own passion for health and care, that places the whole person at the heart of a system that seeks to prevent illness and promote wellbeing, as well as to heal.