NZBA Board

Tasha's current role is Women’s Health Promoter at Women’s Health Action. She has spent the last 10+ years in various roles with Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa and Ngati Hine Health Trust focusing on māma me pēpi, as a breastfeeding advocate and whānau maternity support for mental health and addictions.

Tasha visits whānau in their whare or wherever they would like to meet and facilitates breastfeeding korero in Hapu Wananga in Te Tai Tokerau. Her mahi also involves building strong relationships with key community health stakeholders and consumer groups. She has worked in partnership with the Ministry of Health and District Health Boards to provide consumer representation and has developed and led several regional and national initiatives/projects aimed at strengthening and diversifying whānau voices.

Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Kahungungu ki Wairarapa

Born in Whanganui, Bev lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. Graduating as a nurse, she worked as a public health nurse in Taranaki Whanganui, and in Singapore. She became a midwife in London in 1996. During her time as a PHN (Well Child) Bev recognised that she didn’t have great skills assisting others who needed additional and more complex breastfeeding help. She qualified as a lactation consultant in 1997, but got many of her skills simply by talking with māmā/pēpi/whānau and with La Leche League Leaders in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Bev believes the health service has probably never been at a time where there has been more stress and inadequate resourcing and this is providing huge challenges for ūkaipōtanga. Meeting Te Tiriti obligations; Reaching; Preparing; Engaging; Supporting; Providing Accessible Kaupapa Māori and Pasifika services and stamping out inequity are challenges for organisations and BFI facilities and therefore for NZBA’s work within Aotearoa.

Bev’s Master’s degree focused on BFHI. She committed to the establishment of the NZBA, served on NZBA Groups; helped develop and update BFHI documents. She has worked as a BFHI Coordinator and DHB Lactation Support Services Team Leader, leading the way for paid Māori and Pasifika breastfeeding advocate positions.

Bev works at Nga Hau Māngere Birthing Centre, providing midwifery care and skilled help with breastfeeding. She has the privilege of working with a diverse range of ethnic groups and working closely with Māori, Pasifika and other Lead Maternity Care (LMC) Midwife colleagues who assist māmā to birth there. She enjoys watching whānau welcoming tamariki together and partners/supporters staying 24/7. Her aim is to facilitate the best possible whānau experience in a maternity facility; at the same time as providing a safe, nurturing environment for our Māori and Pasifika student midwives to learn.

Henare is the Managing Director of Tuapaerangi Ltd. He is from Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri and Ngapuhi iwi from the Far North. He currently holds positions as Te Whare o Ngapuhi Ki Otautahi and Te Waipounamu, Nga Tai Haruru Waka Ama and Kaiwhakamana Canterbury Prisons.

Henare provides cultural support and advice to a number of organisations through his role as Māori Advisor to Canterbury Police District Commander, New Zealand Police STU and New Zealand Police Area Commanders.

He is Kaumatua of Rehua Marae, Te Rangimarie Marae, Taurahere O Waitaha and provides Kaumatua support and advice to a number of health and education bodies including Cashmere High School, Diabetes Christchurch, St Martins Primary School.

Henare has had a close association with the NZBA for a number of years providing Kaumatua support and cultural advice to the organisation. His experience on other national and regional Māori advisory boards was invaluable and guided Te Rōpu Whakaruruhau.

Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha

Taua Wendy has over 25 years of experience in the Health sector in a variety of roles. She has represented Māori interests in health on a number of boards and organisations including; South Island Māori Cancer Leadership Network, National Kaitiaki Group – Cervical Screening, National Breastfeeding Association, Mana Whenua ki Waitaha Charitable Trust , Pegasus Community Board and Te Kahui o Papaki Ka Tai – PHO, Primary Health Care Māori Advisory Group (Chairperson).

Prior to working at Ihi Research Wendy was an independent researcher working on local projects including; He Kokonga Whare (HKW): Māori Intergenerational Trauma and Healing Programme – (Health Research Council of New Zealand) and a project for the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, ‘Understanding Māori 'lived' culture to determine cultural connectedness and wellbeing.’

Wendy was the Program Leader of Health and Social Wellbeing, Toitu te iwi, for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu from 2008 to 2012. She worked as the Cultural Advisor/Manager of Māori health, Pegasus Health (IPA), Researcher/ Lecturer at M.I.H.I. (Maori Indigenous Health Institute) University of Otago - Christchurch. During this time she was part of the team that developed the Meihana Model, a clinical assessment framework developed using Te Whare Tapa Whā.

Tena koutou katoa

Ko Moumoukai tōku Maunga

Ko Naguroro tōku Awa

Ko Tākitimu tōku Waka

Ko Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Rongomaiwahine,

Ngati Porou tōku Iwi

Ko Rākaipaaka tōku Hapu

Ko Nga Tamakahu, Iwitea tōku Marae

Ko Kiley Clark (Hewett) tōku ingoa

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou

Kia Kaha, Kia Māia, Kia Manawanui

Kiley has been a midwife for 11 years, graduating as a direct entry midwife. She has lived and worked in South Auckland for 20 years before recently moving home to Central Hawkes Bay, No Waipawa ahau.

Kiley has a working history of DHB Midwifery at Middlemore Hospital and Hawkes Bay Hospital. Also. the LMC Team with “Turuki Healthcare” Māori Midwifery Team and now currently works as the Māori Midwifery Consultant to Maternity in Hawkes Bay DHB.

As tapuhi Māori, Kiley believes that Māori leadership, and expertise is crucial to enable true equity and partnership for whānau Māori. There is a lot of mahi to be done to meet the needs of whānau Māori specifically within breastfeeding services, support and education. Her passion is to raise the profile and understanding for te ao māori services, to improve culturally responsive breastfeeding services in Aotearoa.

Kiley has built on her governance and strategic work within the DHB and community with Māori whānau, and believe that this opportunity with the New Zealand Breastfeeding Alliance will allow her to support and facilitate changes for whānau Māori breastfeeding and wellbeing.

Ngāi Tahu, Waitaha, Ngāti Mamoe

Sarah-Anne is employed by Te Puawaitangi ki Ōtautahi Trust, facilitating the Whānau Mai Kaupapa Māori Antenatal Pregnancy & Parenting Program and providing administration support for the Wahakura Wānanga Workshops in Ōtautahi.

Sarah-Anne is a registered midwife and practiced in the community for 6 years until June 2018. She is passionate about supporting wāhine and whānau to be the positive leaders in their pregnancy journey. She has also supported many at risk whānau and understands the challenges that they can face day to day. Breastfeeding was a major part of her mahi and with appropriate supports saw many whānau realise their breastfeeding dream.

She lived for 32 years within a rural community of the Chatham Islands. This remote rural location has given her tools to deal with rural location adversities, and shown the importance of working as a community.

Dr Yvonne LeFort, a family medicine doctor trained in Canada, has practised breastfeeding medicine for over 20 years and runs a private breastfeeding clinic on Auckland’s North Shore. 

She is a dual Fellow of RNZCGP and CCFP(Canada), IBCLC, Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), and currently serves on the Board of Directors, and the Governance and Protocol Committees. She has recently completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Health from Otago University.

Yvonne has provided formal and informal education for IBCLCs and medical colleagues alike, helping to upskill many healthcare workers, to acquire the knowledge to provide best practice when consulting with breastfeeding dyads. She has presented nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics.

She is the first author of the ABM’s Position Statement on Ankyloglossia and Breastfeeding Dyads 2021, a contributor to New Zealand Aotearoa National Guidance for the Assessment, Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Tongue-Tie in Breastfeeding Neonates and a co-author of Complications and Misdiagnoses associated with infant frenotomy: results of a healthcare professional survey (International breastfeeding Journal 2022.) along with several other clinical protocols.

Currently she is a professional advisor to La Leche League New Zealand, a member of NZLCA and the founder of a Breastfeeding Medicine RNZCGP Peer Review Group.

Erin worked alongside mothers and babies as an apprentice homebirth midwife on a small, rural island on the West Coast of Canada and later immigrated to New Zealand and gained a Bachelor of Midwifery Degree in 2001.  Erin worked as a rural LMC midwife and a facility midwife in Southland before relocating to Tāmaki Makaurau, where she continues to live with her family.   

Erin’s three children were all born early, and it was her experience of breastfeeding premature infants that triggered her desire to work in this unique area.  She qualified as an IBCLC in 2010 and has worked as a lactation consultant in the Special Care Baby Unit at Waitakere Hospital for almost ten years.  She is passionate about supporting families to achieve their feeding goals and values the opportunity to develop strong partnerships with the diverse families she works alongside within the complex neonatal environment.

Previously, Erin has worked as a Midwifery Standards Reviewer and senior lecturer at Otago Polytechnic’s School of Midwifery.  She holds postgraduate qualifications in Midwifery, Education and Health Science and is a member of NZLCA and NZCOM.