The Team
The research is being undertaken by a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, cross-organisational team lead by CRESA.
Research team members
Kay Saville-Smith — Programme Leader
Dr Kay Saville-Smith is a sociologist and director of the Centre for Research, Evaluation and Social Assessment – CRESA. Kay has undertaken extensive research into housing markets, housing demand, retirement villages, accessible housing, sustainable housing, the residential building industry and neighbourhood built environments. In addition to this current programme she has led a number of public good science funded programmes or components, including: Finding the Best Fit – Housing, Downsizing and Older People in a changing Society – a three year research programme assessing the practicalities of downsizing and the conditions which determine successful transitions; Resilient Communities – Doing Better in Bad Times – a two year programme aimed at helping older people and their communities to be more resilient during adverse natural events and recover better after them; Good Homes – a five-year programme on older people’s repairs and maintenance needs in the context of ageing in place; the Sustainable Neighbourhoods Stream for BEACON Consortium; and the social science component of the Building Energy End-use Study (BEES) undertaken by BRANZ. She is also a trustee for the Marlborough Sustainable Housing Trust.
Jacqueline Cumming
Dr Jacqueline (Jackie) Cumming is Professor of Health Policy and Management and Director of the Health Services Research Centre in the School of Government at Victoria University. She has qualifications in both economics and public policy. Jackie previously worked for a number of government departments and agencies, including the Department of Labour, Public Health Commission and the Department/Ministry of Health. Her research interests include health services research, health policy and health economics issues, particularly health system performance, health system reform, primary health care, access, inequalities and evaluation (including economic evaluation). Her PhD in Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington focused on the theory and practice of defining core health services. As well as managing the Centre, she is working on a number of projects at the Centre, including projects on primary health care reform and integration; health quality and safety; and community health initiatives. She also teaches within the School of Government and supervises a number of PhD students undertaking research on a range of health services topics.
Bev James
Dr Bev James has extensive experience in social research and evaluation, policy analysis, service design and working with community groups to develop evidence-based tools and solutions. After working as a senior lecturer, holding management and policy positions in the public service and in local government, she has been director of Public Policy & Research since 1998. Bev has been involved in a number of public good science programmes looking at housing downsizing, repairs and maintenance, community resilience and residential movement. Bev has led two monitoring projects on the Retirement Villages Act for the Commission for Financial Capability. Bev has extensive experience in working with and supporting community based research initiatives. Key areas of research are: housing; ageing society; community resilience and development and public participation in resource management.
Elsie Ho
Dr Elsie Ho is Associate Professor of Population Mental Health and Director of the Centre for Asian and Ethnic Minority Health Research at the University of Auckland. She has previously held teaching and research appointments at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Waikato. Elsie is a leading expert in migration and Asian health studies in New Zealand, and has published internationally in numerous refereed journals and books. In 2007, she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her services to migrant communities. Her current research projects include migration and health trajectories, at-risk migrant families, care-giving in transnational families and health and wellbeing of older migrants.
Fiona Cram
Dr Fiona Cram is of Ngati Pahauwera descent and has a PhD in social and developmental psychology from the University of Otago. She has lectured in Social Psychology and has also been a senior research fellow at the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education, at the University of Auckland. In 2003 Fiona established Katoa Ltd – a Maori indigenous research organisation that undertakes Kaupapa Maori (by Maori, for Maori) research and evaluation, as well as offering a range of research and evaluation training. Fiona’s research interests are wide-ranging including Maori health, justice and education.
Robin Kearns
Dr Robin Kearns, is Professor of Geography at The University of Auckland. Robin has expertise in a range of qualitative methods and has applied these over the past 20 years in studies of health services and health determinants. His interests centre on the role of place in shaping health experience. Current research projects include work on: investigating the effects of proposed residential developments on coastal experience; the links between neighbourhood design and physical activity; housing issues for older people; and the place of activism in influencing urban change. He has published four books and numerous articles addressing aspects of the links between culture, place and health. He is an editor of the journal: Health & Place.
Natalie Jackson
Dr Natalie Jackson is an Adjunct Professor (Demography) in the School of People, Planning and Environment at Massey University (Albany, New Zealand). Recent academic positions were Foundation Director and Professor of Demography at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis (NIDEA), University of Waikato (2010-2014), and Associate Professor in the School of Sociology and Social Work at University of Tasmania where she worked between 1999 and 2010. Today she is also Director of Natalie Jackson Demographics Ltd. Natalie has a PhD in Demography from the Australian National University, and Bachelor and Master degrees in Social Science from the University of Waikato. Her primary expertise is on the subnational ending of population growth, the underlying demographic drivers of these trends and their consequences for all levels of government, labour market, welfare state, education and health care policy, and business in general. She leads a Royal NZ Society Marsden project ‘The subnational mechanisms of the ending of population growth – towards a theory of depopulation’ (Maori translation Tai Timu Tangata. Taihoa e? – The ebbing of the human tide. What does it mean for the people?). Natalie’s related research fields are industrial and labour market demography, the demography of subpopulations such as ethnic groups, and the demography of inequality.
Ruth Fraser
Ruth Fraser is of Ngai Tahu descent and has trained in social policy and law. She has an LLB (Hons). She has been employed as a researcher at CRESA since October 1995. Ruth’s main interests are in the areas of the rental market, resource management, household energy use, and community development. She has extensive experience in face-to-face interviews and focus groups with a range of people and in data management and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative information. She has undertaken database design, quality control and analysis of social science data for a range of housing projects including Household End-use Energy Project (HEEP) and the 2010 and 2015 National House Condition Surveys under taken with BRANZ. She has undertaken a range of surveys with older people and agencies/organisations working with older people as part of the Finding the Best Fit, Good Homes and Resilient Communities programmes.