Health Workforce Advisory Board member biographies

Dr Judy McGregor is the Chair of the Health Workforce Advisory Board.

She is also the Chair of Waitematā District Health Board and Chair of the Ministry of Health’s Mental Health and Addictions Assurance Group.

She has held previous governance roles such as the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner for the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. In 2016 she won the Supreme Award for Women on Boards from Governance New Zealand.

Dr McGregor is currently the Associate Dean Postgraduate in the Faculty of Culture and Society at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She is patron of the Auckland Women’s Centre.

Mr Metzler is the Chief Executive of Gore Health Limited, a rural community-owned charitable trust hospital and healthcare facility that incorporates emergency, inpatients, allied health, x-ray, laboratory, oral health, general practice and primary maternity services.

He sits on Southern District Health Board's executive leadership team part-time to assist in various change management initiatives. He is a past Chair of the New Zealand Institute of Rural Health.

Mr Metzler has a background in mental health, working as a clinical psychologist, service manager and national workforce manager with Te Pou to develop a workforce strategy for the mental health sector.

Mr Connolly is a general surgeon with Counties Manukau District Health Board and a Board member of the Health Quality & Safety Commission.

Mr Connolly was appointed to the Medical Council of New Zealand from 2009 to 2019, which included a five-year term as the Chair.

In this capacity he led changes and improvements in resident doctor education, recertification for specialist doctors and the profession’s approach to health inequity.

Mr Connolly is currently a Clinical Advisor to the Commissioner of Waikato District Health Board.

Associate Professor Sopoaga is the Associate Dean (Pacific) and head of Va’a o Tautai in Health Sciences at the University of Otago.

In 2018, she received the Prime Minister’s supreme award for national tertiary teaching excellence. Of Samoan descent, she has been acknowledged for Outstanding Leadership to Pacific Communities.

She is a Fellow of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine and Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

Dr Baxter has a clinical background in public health medicine and experience in medical education.

Dr Baxter is the Director of the Māori Health Workforce Development Unit at the University of Otago, which supports initiatives to grow the Māori health workforce through increasing the recruitment, retention and graduation of Māori health professionals.

Mrs Claire is the Lead DHB Chief Executive for Health Workforce and holds the ex officio member position on the Board. She is the Chief Executive of Auckland District Health Board.

Dr Grace Wong

Dr Grace Wong is a senior lecturer in the School of Nursing at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), researcher at AUT’s Migrant and Refugee Health Research Centre and assessor with the National Smoking Cessation Service. 

She is experienced in public health and primary health care, with a particular focus on Asian and refugee health, prevention of addictions (alcohol and smoking), and health promotion and education.  

Mr Tūraukawa Bartlett is the Kaiwhakahononga / Māori Engagement and Development Lead at Careerforce te toi pūkenga.

He is a qualified youth worker/mental health and addictions whānau support worker with a passion for community health promotion and kaiāwhina wellbeing.

As Director of MANAvation, he has established and implemented community-based and school-based wellbeing programmes delivered directly to rangatahi.

Mr Wesley Pigg is a Care Redesign Fellow and Service Improvement Lead, Orthotics at Waitematā DHB.  He is also a Board Observer under the Seat at the Table DHB Governance Programme.

Wesley has been a wheelchair user for the last 6 years following a spinal cord injury. Being a wheelchair user and a health professional provides a unique perspective of both sides of the health system. 

Wesley realises the powerful impact of healthcare on people’s lives and aims to use his experiences, knowledge, and skills to improve the quality of people’s lives through healthcare.