The Team

Dave Wood, Senior Health Improvement Advisor 

Dave has worked in public health for over eight years.  He is the Senior Health Improvement Advisor for the WorkWell team at Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service and while supporting a number of workplaces through the WorkWell process, he is also responsible for looking after the day to day running of the team.  Dave leads the national approach to wellbeing and can often be seen training and supporting other district health board and public health staff in the successful delivery of the WorkWell programme.

Having worked in a variety of occupations from large government departments to engineering workshops, Dave brings a wealth of experience to the role helping him  relate to the wide variety of needs and realities of each workplace.  Dave says, “Regardless of the industry or size of your organisation, with WorkWell or Good4Work you can achieve optimum workplace wellbeing step by logical step.”
 

Susie Bankart, WorkWell Advisor

Originally hailing from the UK, Susie is a Registered General Nurse.  Susie recently returned from Qatar where she worked in a Sports Medicine hospital leading an initiative to re-design patient and community education to better meet the needs of the multicultural patient population.

Susie has a wide range of clinical and project management experience.  She has a master’s degree in public health, a passion for shared decision making and health literacy, and a keen interest in ensuring that healthcare information is as accessible and as jargon free for the public as possible.

Susie is excited to be involved in assisting workplaces to implement Workwell.  She is confident that when staff are engaged and all aspects of the work environment are considered, workplaces can have positive effects on the health and wellbeing of their staff.

 

Ronda Cleland, WorkWell Advisor

Ronda joined Toi Te Ora over eight years ago as a health promoter and worked in various roles, before joining the WorkWell team in 2019. Her career is wide and varied having also worked as a muscian, neonatal nurse, midwife, public health nurse, and full-time mum!

Ronda grew up in a construction and timber processing family business, seeing first-hand the difference, as well as potential, that workplace changes can make to health, wellbeing and productivity.

Ronda has a Masters in Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts (Social Anthropology) and her current life pursuit is finding the perfect work-life balance so she can enjoy her time at work, as well as enjoy time with her family, gardening, restoring furniture, and going on holiday!

Lucy Leppard, WorkWell Advisor

Having completed a Bachelor of Physiotherapy and a postgraduate certificate in Public Health with an endorsement in Health Promotion, Lucy has returned to the sunny bay after living in windy Wellington. 
 

Lucy previously worked as a Health Promoter on a Maternal and Child Health programme as well as in a variety of clinical settings.  “When working in the hospital setting, I often felt like we were the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, that’s when I started to look into Public Health.”  
 

Lucy is passionate about empowering individuals to achieve better health outcomes, “Most of us spend a third of our time at work so it’s no wonder the workplace is an optimal setting to improve the wellbeing of individuals, whānau and the community”. 

Joel Barr, WorkWell Advisor
 

With whakapapa connections to Whakatohea and Ngati Awa, Joel has a Bachelor of Health Science and extensive experience in the service industry, having previously worked for several years as a regional high performance tennis coach.  The unique environment of performance coaching and business management links well with his public health experience where he works alongside businesses to integrate healthy policy in to their ‘business as usual’.  “I am passionate about helping people reach their health and wellbeing goals,” says Joel.  “The WorkWell programme enables workplaces to create a culture of wellbeing that is nurtured through a step by step process.  Small changes can help to create large-scale positive change.”
 
 

Sharon Muru, Health Improvement Manager

“It is now well recognised that successful workplaces support the health and wellbeing of their staff,” says Sharon Kennedy-Muru, Health Improvement Manager.
 
Sharon has worked for Toi Te Ora - Public Health Service for a number of years in a variety of roles and was part of the initial development of WorkWell.  Qualified in public health and education, Sharon has expertise in population health, health promotion, policy development, communication and organisational development and management.

“As Health Improvement Manager, I have responsibility for leading and managing all of Toi Te Ora’s health improvement programmes and I have full confidence in the WorkWell programme and team.  WorkWell is based on best practice and encourages workplaces to follow a step-by-step process of continuous quality improvement in staff wellbeing.”

“The workplace is an ideal setting to improve health and wellbeing, with the workplace benefiting from this also, through the likes of increased productivity and staff engagement.  Creating a supportive workplace makes the healthy choice the easy choice and normalises healthy behaviours.”

Dr Phil Shoemack, Medical Officer of Health