Home / Collaborations / Research for Children Aotearoa / Our Researchers

Our Researchers

A matou Kairangahau

Child Health Researchers

The key strength of the RfCA Collaborative is the interplay of expertise that crosses a multitude of disciplines, professions and sectors.

Research is not limited to clinical, medical, theoretical or sociological domains.

 

Andrew Day
Professor Andrew Day, Cure Kids Chair of Paediatric Research at University of Otago Christchurch.

Professor Andrew Day, Cure Kids Chair of Paediatric Research at University of Otago Christchurch, is an academic paediatric gastroenterologist. Research interests include bowel diseases in children, nutrition and nutritional interventions and biomarkers of gut dysfunction.

Laurie McLay
Professor Laurie McLay is a Professor in Te Kaupeka Oranga | Faculty of Health at the University of Canterbury. She recently established and is Director of the Autism Research Centre – Aotearoa New Zealand.

Laurie’s primary research focus is on the design, development and evaluation of digitally-delivered supports that promote the health and well-being of Autistic children and their caregivers. This includes over a decade of experience researching the primary and secondary benefits of psychosocial sleep interventions for Autistic people.

Prof. McLay has authored over 75 research outputs and secured over $9 million in external grant funding ($3.6 million as lead investigator) through a series of national and international research collaborations.

Jayne White
Professor E. Jayne White has a life-long commitment to early years research and pedagogy in and beyond educational spaces.

Professor E. Jayne White has a life-long commitment to early years research and pedagogy in and beyond educational spaces. As co-lead of School of Teacher Education’s Pedagogies of Possibilities Research Group, she advances research that goes beyond ‘what is’ to explore questions concerning ‘what could be’. Jayne co-founded the Association for Visual Pedagogies, a society dedicated to visual scholarship in thought and practice where she holds a Fellowship and is also Editor-in-Chief of their journal called Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy.

Jayne also co-edits the international Springer book series Policy and Pedagogy with under three-year-olds and is a life-long Fellow of the Educational Philosophy Society of Australasia. These roles coalesce around Jayne’s lingering commitment to creative ways of visibilising our youngest learners as dialogic partners in mutual becomings. To this end she has published over 200 scholarly papers, books and chapters and, additionally, translates many of these research insights for teachers to access in websites, memes, and video (e.g.
https://www.waikato.ac.nz/age-responsive/ and 
https://www.earlytransitions.com/

Megan Gath
Dr Megan Gath is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, as well as a researcher with the Child Well Being Institute.

Dr. Gath’s research interests are centred in developmental psychology, with a focus on parenting, family dynamics, and children’s social, emotional, and moral development. Recent projects include a focus on child and youth screen media use in relation to developmental outcomes including language, educational skills, social functioning, and mental health.


Dr. Gath specialises in secondary analysis of large-scale datasets, including work with the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), the Growing Up in New Zealand study, the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, and the national assessment dataset from the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA).

 

Between Sept 2024 and Aug 2026, Dr. Gath has an Emerging Researcher Fellowship with the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation (CMRF) to examine the developmental impacts of screen media use in childhood.

Yvonne Crichton-Hill
Associate Professor Yvonne Crichton-Hill is a registered social worker, working with the Faculty of Health at the University of Canterbury.

A/Prof Crichton-Hill’s research focus is culturally responsive social work practice with a focus on Pacific communities.

Tufulasi Taleni
Dr Taleni is a Senior Lecturer supporting the School of Leadership and Professional Practice, Faculty of Education at the University of Canterbury.

Dr Taleni’s teaching, research and service are guided, influenced and inspired by the metaphorical notion in Samoan  – ‘ole talatalaina ole upega lavelave, the untangling of the tangled net’.  This notion contextualizes the reality of his role as an educator, a researcher and a community leader in seeking solutions that can help resolve matters that impact on the lives of students, families and communities. 

His interest in Pasifika education as a whole and educational leadership  captures his aspiration to engage in research to improve outcomes for Pacific learners.

He has developed a new research methodology known as the Soalaupulega Samoa Research Theoretical Framework (SSRTF).  Such methodology captures the relationship between people and the research matter.  It opens doors to deep thinking in seeking solutions to resolve issues impacting on the lives of the community. Soalaupulega theoretical framework is a taonga I offer to the research community, locally, nationally and globally.

He also developed, coordinated and led the Pasifika Education Initiative – known as the Samoa Malaga, a strategy to help non Pasifika teachers, school leaders, academics, initial teacher educators etc to increase their knowledge of Pacific cultures and contexts to support this whole kaupapa on raising the achievement and engagement of Pacific learners. 

Philip Schluter
Professor Schluter's research is largely epidemiological in nature, driven by a social justice perspective.

Student supervisions and publications have largely focused on population inequity, forming an evidence base to inform important health policies. Many peer-reviewed journal articles explicitly deal with the social determinants of health, often embedded in local contexts but motivated by national or international public health priority areas seeking to reduce health inequalities.

Mercedes Burnside
Dr Mercedes Burnside is a Paediatric Endocrinologist based in Christchurch.

She completed her medical and paediatric training in Christchurch before undertaking a PhD at the University of Otago, where her research focused on diabetes technology. Following this, she completed subspecialty training in Paediatric Endocrinology at Perth Children’s Hospital and returned to Christchurch in early 2025. Her clinical and research interests centre on diabetes, obesity, and metabolic health in children and young people.

Stephanie Brown
Dr Stephanie Brown is a Paediatric Gastroenterology Dietitian at Christchurch Hospital and a Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Otago, Christchurch.

 Her research focuses on how nutrition and diet impact children living with chronic gastrointestinal conditions, with recent work examining inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and food-related quality of life.

Sarah Harris
Dr Sarah Harris is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago Christchurch as well as Neonatal Paediatrician Health NZ Waitaha Canterbury.
Alix Harding
Alix is a PhD candidate in psychology at the University of Canterbury, based in Te Puna Toiora, the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Lab.

Her research explores how micronutrients and mindfulness, both individually and together, may help children aged 6 to 10 regulate their emotions more effectively. By looking not only at wellbeing outcomes but also biological markers, Alix hopes to shed light on the connections between nutrition, mindfulness, mental health, and child development.

Yvonne Golpak
Dr Yvonne Golpak is a Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Otago.

Her teaching provides lecture topics under Paediatric Dentistry to undergraduate students and postgraduate candidates training to be specialist paediatric dentists. 

She also provides clinical teaching for undergraduate students and postgraduate candidates providing care for children at the Faculty of Dentistry dental clinics.

Her research interest is in the epidemiology of dental caries and oral health conditions affecting children, including care of those who are medically compromised or have special needs.

She also has an interest in the outcomes of oral health promotion, prevention and intervention strategies in communities.

Find out more about the Research for Children Aotearoa Collaboration

View Here