Queen’s Birthday Honours for University of Auckland academics

Mothers and babies, people with eye issues, Māori mental health and wellbeing, the Tuvaluan community, and social policy in Aotearoa New Zealand have all benefited from the research and teaching of six University of Auckland researchers who were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

The purpose of the New Zealand Royal Honours system is to recognise those who have served and achieved.

The following University of Auckland staff are among the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours recipients:

Dr Hinemoa Elder, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. MNZM (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to psychiatry and Māori.

Dr Hinemoa Elder is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who has strongly advocated for greater awareness of Māori cultural needs in the health sector.

Dr Elder works in both public and private practice, specialising in youth forensic psychiatry and neuropsychiatric assessment and treatment for Māori with traumatic brain injuries. To extend the work of her doctorate, she received the Health Research Council of New Zealand Eru Pomare Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2014. She is also a Deputy Psychiatrist Member on the Mental Health Review Tribunal. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, where she was a member of Te Kaunihera o te Hauora Hinengaro Māori from 2004 to 2012. She was a Professor of Indigenous Mental Health Research at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi from 2016 to 2019. She was involved in the development of mental health services in New Zealand as part of the expert advisory group of Blueprint II. She has been the Māori strategic advisor for Brain Research New Zealand since 2016. Dr Elder has published research on indigenous approaches to working with Māori children.

Mrs Sagaa Malua, Te Kupenga Hauora Māori Teaching, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. QSM (Queen's Service Medal) for services to the Tuvaluan community.

Mrs Sagaa Malua has served the Tuvaluan community in Auckland and in Tuvalu for more than 30 years, often on an unpaid basis, across not-for-profit organisations, committee memberships, through academic research projects, and previously as a secondary teacher.

Mrs Malua was a Treasurer of the Tuvalu Auckland Community Trust from 2004 to 2012 and has continued as Secretary of the Trust since 2012, where she co-ordinated programmes designed to improve the wellbeing of the Tuvalu community. She has undertaken and participated in research projects on the Tuvalu community with the University of Auckland and supported programmes focused on education and social services outcomes to benefit families, their communities and Pacific students. Such programmes include the Achieving Through Pacific Languages Project from 2013 to 2016, Ranui PowerUp since 2016, which assists Ranui Pasifika students' academic achievement, as well as a Financial Capability and Literacy Programme for young people and families.

Her work has frequently involved building relationships between the Tuvalu community and government agencies. From 2008 to 2015, she served as a member of the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Advisory Council and a member of the Ministry of Education Northern Region Pasifika Advisory Group. Mrs Malua co-ordinates the annual Tuvalu Language Week and Tuvalu Independence Day for the Tuvalu Auckland Community Trust.

Professor Charles McGhee, Maurice Paykel Chair in Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. ONZM (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to ophthalmology.

Professor Charles McGhee has contributed to ophthalmology internationally for more than 30 years. He was appointed as the Foundation Maurice Paykel Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Auckland in 1999 and has grown the small department into the internationally recognised New Zealand National Eye Centre. The centre attracts substantial research grants and philanthropic funding and has trained more than 100 New Zealand and international clinical and research fellows.

He was the Clinical Director of Ophthalmology at Auckland District Heath Board for seven years and headed the Auckland Cataract Study that involved significant out-of-hours surgery by a team that significantly reduced existing waiting lists from up to three years to four months. As a skilful cornea and cataract surgeon he is referred many complex clinical cases from throughout New Zealand.

Internationally he has been consistently recognised by the United Kingdom Ophthalmologist magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in eye care in the world. Professor McGhee has been Chair of the scientific committee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists, President of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, President of the British Society for Refractive Surgery, and a Chair of the prestigious 70-member International Society of Academic Ophthalmology.

Listen to Professor McGhee talk about eye health in this extended interview with Jesse Mulligan on Radio New Zealand.

Dr Claire McLintock, Honorary Academic, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. ONZM for services to haematology and obstetrics.

Dr Claire McLintock is a haematologist and obstetric physician at National Women’s Health, Auckland City Hospital and was Clinical Director for Regional Maternity Services from 2014 to 2018.

Dr McLintock has focused on caring for women with disorders of thrombosis and haemostasis, and medical disorders in pregnancy including preeclampsia, postpartum haemorrhage, and heart disease. She is President of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH). She is a member of the ISTH World Thrombosis Day Steering Committee and was co-chair of the ISTH Scientific Subcommittee on Women’s Health Issues.

She is Past-President of the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand and of the Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand. She is on the Council of the Asia Pacific Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. She was a member of the Maternal Mortality Working Group of the New Zealand Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee from 2006 to 2016, and Chair from 2006 to 2009. She is an honorary Senior Lecturer for the Department of Molecular Medicine in the University of Auckland. She has lectured in more than 60 medical conferences nationally and internationally since 1999. Dr McLintock is a member of several expert international panels and advisory boards in women’s health and thrombosis and haemostasis.

Dr Lynn Sadler, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. ONZM for services to maternal and perinatal health.

Dr Lynn Sadler is a leading perinatal epidemiologist in New Zealand and has contributed to the improvement of maternal and perinatal health.
She has led epidemiology and quality improvement projects at Auckland District Health Board and the University of Auckland for more than 20 years. She has directed the collection and reporting of the deaths of babies who died from 20 weeks gestation until four weeks after delivery for the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC).

She was instrumental in data analysis and interpretation to identify where improvements in health and maternity care could be made, and has presented at every PMMRC national conference since 2008. The Committee’s twelfth report was published in June 2018 and she has produced individual reports for each DHB that allow the DHBs to assess their performance against the national data.

She is also involved in teaching quality improvement at the University of Auckland by assisting the final year medical students in preparing an audit of one maternity clinical topic from the DHB that they are working in. Dr Sadler provides support to PhD students and junior researchers, and has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals.

Associate Professor Susan St John QSO, Business School. CNZM for services to social policy.

Associate Professor Susan St John was appointed a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 2010 for more than 30 years of contribution to social policy.

She retired from her teaching position with the Business School at the University of Auckland in 2015. She was co-founder of the Child Poverty Action Group Aotearoa in 1994 and has maintained her involvement until the present. She co-founded the Retirement Policy and Research Centre in 2006 and has maintained her involvement as Honorary Director. She has contributed to New Zealand’s policies in the areas of superannuation, Kiwisaver, private saving schemes, and promoting decumulation products for older people with a housing asset but limited income. She has been an advisor and keynote speaker on New Zealand’s Kiwisaver experience and superannuation policies at international conferences. She was appointed as Advisor to the 2010 Tax Working Group and to the External Panel of the Long Term Fiscal Statement from 2011 to 2013. Associate Professor St John has published more than 80 books, book chapters and peer-reviewed academic articles in both New Zealand and international journals.