Keynote speakers
We are proud to introduce our keynote speakers.
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Professor Ian CouperIan has been Director of the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health and Professor of Rural Health in the Department of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, since 2016. This follows more than thirteen years at the University of the Witwatersrand and the North West Provincial Department of Health. He was a founding member of the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa, and is past chair of the Wonca Working Party on Rural Practice. He has been involved in educational support in a number of African universities, including in Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania, and was a member of the national task team that developed clinical associate (PA) training in South Africa. He is the African section editor of Rural and Remote Health, and an associate editor of BMC Medical Education. His reach focuses on rural health and health professions education. |
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Gilbert EnokaGilbert has a long history of success as a mental skills coach with New Zealand's corporate and sporting elite. He is internationally renowned for his 16-year history with the All Blacks, first as their mental skills coach and now as manager.He has been with the All Blacks for over 200 tests and during that time the team has won back-to-back Rugby World Cups, one Laureus Award (for the best team in the world), 13 Bledisloe Cups, three Grand Slams, seven Tri Nations and four Rugby Championships. Gilbert gives insight into the psychology behind individual and team success in world-level sport and how this can be applied to any walk of life. He talks about leadership, performing under pressure, mental management, strategic planning, effective business management and building thriving cultures. Kindly sponsored by |
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Professor Trish GreenhalghTrish is an internationally recognised academic in primary health care and trained as a GP. She joined the Department in January 2015 after previously holding professorships at University College London and Queen Mary University of London. As co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Research In Health Sciences (IRIHS) unit, Trish leads a programme of research at the interface between social sciences and medicine, with strong emphasis on the organisation and delivery of health services. Her research seeks to celebrate and retain the traditional and humanistic aspects of medicine while also embracing the unparalleled opportunities of contemporary science and technology to improve health outcomes and relieve suffering. Trish is joint module coordinator on the Knowledge Into Action (KIA) module of the MSc in Evidence Based Health Care. |
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Elizabeth IroElizabeth is the World Health Organisation Chief Nursing Officer. She commenced in this role in January 2018 and is a member of the WHO Headquarters leadership team. Elizabeth is from the Cook Islands, and she has served as the country's Secretary of Health since 2012- 2017. In this role, she has implemented legislative reforms to strengthen the country's health system and developed the National Health Strategic plans (2012-2016, 2017-2021)and a National Health Road Map 2017-2036, among other National policy and strategic documents. She was the first nurse/midwife and woman to be appointed in this role in the Cook Islands. She was trained as a nurse and a midwife in New Zealand and holds a MHSc in Nursing and a MBA. She held various nursing roles such as Chief Nursing Officer (2011-2012), Registrar of the Nursing Council (2000-2007) as well was the President of the Cook Islands Nurses Association (2002-2010). Kindly sponsored by
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Associate Professor Alex NgAlex's personal mission is to support the under-privileged, the under-served and make this world a more equitable place. He has been and is still experimenting with different approaches to achieve this mission. Alex first started his career as a medical doctor where he was the chief resident at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland before completing his MPH at Harvard. Instead of returning to New Zealand, he joined McKinsey & Company and later became an associate partner advising governments and healthcare corporates on their strategy and operations. After nine years at McKinsey between US and China, he joined the Gates Foundation as the deputy director of the China Country Office, responsible for the health and innovation portfolio. Although he no longer practices clinical medicine, he continues to engage with students through a master level course "strategies in healthcare" that he teaches at the University of Hong Kong as an honorary associate professor. |
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Dr James RenwickJames has nearly four decades' experience in weather and climate research. His main field is large-scale climate variability and climate change, including such things as El Niño, the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds, and the impacts of climate variability and change on New Zealand and the Antarctic.James was a lead author for the last two Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is a Convening Lead Author for the new 6th IPCC Assessment. He was recently awarded the Prime Minister's 2018 prize for Science Communication. |
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