Structure & Governance

The NZPsS Executive

The NZPsS is governed by and Executive made up of members elected by the membership. The Executive has the overall responsibility of determining the strategic direction, policies and priorities for the Society. The Executive is made up of twelve members including the Executive Director who is an ex officio member.

The NZPsS Rules (PDF)  underpin the governance of the NZPsS. 

Minutes from Executive Meetings and other information can be found on this page.

NZPsS Executive and Executive Director

The NZPsS Executive is made up of seven elected members and two Directors of Bicultural Issues who are appointed by the National Standing Committee on Bicultural Issues. The Executive also has a Kaihautū/Kaumatua who supports and advises the Executive on bicultural issues. The Executive Director is an ex officio member of the Executive.

President: Tania Anstiss
President-Elect: Dr Rebecca Wirihana
Immediate Past President: Dr Waikaremaona Waitoki
Director of Professional Development and Training: Dr Kris Fernando
Director of Social Issues: TBC
Director of Bicultural Issues: Dr Hukarere Valentine
Director of Bicultural Issues: Megan Fitzpatrick
Director of Professional Issues: TBC
Director of Scientific Issues: Dr Erin Tahauri
Student Rep: Emma Harper
Tauira Māori: Abigail Cashell
Kaihautu: Prof Angus Macfarlane
Co-opted: Brian Dixon

Tania Anstiss

President

Tania Anstiss is President of the New Zealand Psychological Society and is a registered Clinical Psychologist. Tania is passionate about supporting the development of the psychology profession and growing her ability to be a proactive and effective ally for tangata whenua in Aotearoa. Particular interests are relational and intergenerational trauma, working with whānau, tamariki and pēpē, intervening early to support positive outcomes. As the Child and Youth Psychology Lead, Te Whatu Ora Waitemata, Tania works in Infant Mental Health and in private practice she provides professional supervision to practitioners in a range of professions. Tania is also involved with supporting and advocating for families in Aotearoa and internationally who are living with the impacts of brain disease.

Dr Rebecca Wirihana

President-elect

Ko Taranaki me Whakarapa ngā maunga. Ko Waitōtara te awa. Ko Hokianga te moana. Ko Ngā Rauru kī tahi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui, Te Rarawa me Ngāpuhi ngā iwi. Dr Rebecca Wirihana has a passion for exploring Māori methods of healing front trauma and has specialised in kaupapa Māori mental health and addictions services. Dr Wirihana’s research examined Māori leadership, Māori women's journeys of learning te reo and Māori methods of healing from historical trauma on the He Kokonga Whare Research Program with Te Atawhai o te Ao (Independent Māori Research Institute for Environment and Health). More recently, she worked with Te Mana Karereā alongside several of her kaimahi Māori colleagues throughout mental health services in Te Whatu Ora ki Te Tai Tokerau with a focus on advancing tikanga based service delivery and reducing inequity. Presently, Dr Wirihana is a Principal Advisor and the Trauma Expert Lead with the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry.

Associate Professor Waikaremoana Waitoki

Immediate Past President, (MSocSc, PGDipPsych(Clin) PhD Waikato

Ko Pukemokemoke te maunga, ko Pae Ahi te marae, ko Ohinemuri te awa, ko Ngāti Hako te iwi. Waikaremoana is the Immediate Past President of NZPsS Executive. She is a Senior Research Fellow in the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato and an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Otago University. She is a clinical psychologist with work and research interests in adult mental health, supervision, child and adolescent mental health, and addictions.

Dr Hukarere Valentine

Director of Bicultural Issues

Dr Hukarere Valentine is of Māori descent and born and raised in Heretaunga, Ngati Kahungunu and affiliates to the tribes of Ngāi Tahu, Te Ātiawa, Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, and Ngā Puhi. Hukarere has been a practicing clinical psychologist now for almost 12 years and has worked within the areas of forensics, mental health, student research, clinical and cultural supervision, chronic health conditions and psycho oncology. Currently Hukarere is the Haumaru Tautoko Hauora within the Health conditions and cancer psychology services in the Massey Psychology Clinic Turitea campus. Hukarere is also involved in the Clinical Psychology training program at Massey University, with a specific focus around the incorporation and advancement of a bicultural component within the Clinical Psychology programme. Her research interests specifically centre on the consideration and development of Māori models of psychological practice with a particular passion for wairua (spirituality) and wellbeing. Her Doctorate of Clinical Psychology research thesis was oriented toward this focus.

Dr Erin Tahauri

Director of Scientific Issues

Dr Erin Tahauri is a consultant clinical psychologist/neuropsychologist in Te Tai Tokerau. She conducts neuropsychological assessments for children and adolescents in care and through the child development services. Prior to her work as a psychologist, she completed her Master of Social Work degree and worked as a clinical social worker in private practice while she continued her doctoral studies. She obtained her Doctorate of Clinical Psychology and her dissertation research focused on fostering identity and self-esteem amongst Hawaii’s adolescents through a modern interpretation of indigenous Hawaiian cultural values and practices. Her work and interests have focused on neuropsychology, therapeutic interventions for the neurodiverse, traumatic brain injury and cognitive rehabilitation, post-partum mood disorder specialisation, family/couple therapeutic intervention, and clinical supervision. Erin and her ohana moved to Aotearoa from Hawaii in 2017 where she has worked in the public health system since.

Dr Kris Fernando

Director of Professional Development and Training

Kris Fernando is a Neuropsychologist and chief of clinical services at Active+. Kris has considerable experience in Governance and strategic thinking through having been involved in a management role at ACC for 12 years belonging to the Clinical Governance Committee and the Clinical Services Executive Team. She is continuing to gain experience in this area through being on the Active+ Executive Team as Chief of Clinical Services. These roles includes training and development of the existing psychology and other allied health team of 900 clinicians, and oversight of the Active+ intern psychology programme. She has also obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration through Auckland University of Technology where there was considerable focus on strategic thinking and planning. Over the years, Kris has developed her understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and assisted ACC mental health services in working towards ACC meeting its commitments related to it. Kris was involved in various initiatives on ACC mental health contracts designing services which were aimed at being more culturally responsive to the needs of Māori.

Professor Angus Hikairo Macfarlane

Kaihautū

Angus Hikairo Macfarlane affiliates to the Ngāti Whakāue iwi (tribe) in the north island of New Zealand. He is Professor of Māori Research at the University of Canterbury (UC). His research focuses on Indigenous and sociocultural imperatives that influence education and psychology. His prolific publications portfolio and exemplary teaching abilities have earned him national and international standing in his field of scholarship. Over recent years he has been a recipient of national research, teaching, and service awards and in 2017 was UCSA’s ‘postgraduate supervisor of the year’. Angus holds leadership roles on two National Science Challenges and the Māori Centre of Research Excellence, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.

Abigail Cashell
Tauira Māori Student representative
 

Megan Fitzpatrick
Director of Bicultural Issues

Megan Fitzpatrick (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine), Megan is a registered Educational Psychologist.  She began her career working in Learning Support for the Ministry of Education, predominantly with ākonga and whānau Māori in both Māori and English medium.  She currently holds a national role as Kaitohutohu Ārahi in the Ministry’s National Service Support and Guidance roopu.   Megan’s passion and mahi is to contribute to better outcomes for all mokopuna and whānau Māori, and in raising cultural awareness and improving practitioner preparation before engaging with whānau Māori, as part of the solution.

Emma Harper

NZPsS Student Representative

Emma initially qualified as a registered nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London in 1999. She moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2005 with her husband, and continued her nursing career at Middlemore Hospital, alongside raising their three children. A family move to Te Oko Horoi, Cambridge in 2019 was the catalyst for change, and she is now in her final year of completing her Masters in Educational and Developmental Psychology (Massey University). Emma has built upon her strong foundation in nursing practice, and uses a systemic perspective to consider the broad ecological factors that learners and their families experience. She is passionate about promoting nurturing and inclusive environments that celebrate the unique potential inherent within all young people, so that they may flourish. She is thankful for the opportunity to be one of the student representatives and is excited to learn more about the support that NZPsS offers.

Brian Dixon

co-opted

Brian spent his formative years in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato. He completed his clinical psychology training and Masters in community service evaluation at the University of Otago. As a senior psychologist in the Hamilton office of the Department of Justice Psychological Services, Brian developed CBT-based residential programmes for violent offenders and when he became Otago/Southland’s Regional Senior Psychologist, was awarded an ANZAC Fellowship to study specialised offender treatment programmes. Since 2001, Brian has been on Otago’s clinical psychology training programme staff and operates a private practice in Dunedin. His research and professional interests include: professional ethics, treatment applications of virtual/mixed reality systems and climate psychology. He was on the NZPsS Ethical Issues Committee for 14 years and its convenor for nine, during which time he actively campaigned for radical changes to the Code of Ethics, which resulted in the current Code. Brian is a Fellow of the Society, a member of the Society’s Climate Psychology Task Force, a member of the Institute of Clinical Psychology and was a founding member of the Institutes of Community and Criminal Justice Psychology. He was Otago-Southland Branch chairperson for 10 years and was a member of the former Council of the Society.

Veronica Pitt

Executive Director

Veronica joined the Society as its Executive Director in 2020 and is responsible for the management of the organisation. She attended the University of Canterbury, followed by the University of Wyoming for her Bachelors of Commerce and Arts, and Master of Arts degrees. Her career to date has been in the not-for-profit sector, working with Family violence prevention agencies in the Horowhenua and then moving through various governance and management roles with Playcentre Aotearoa.

National Office

The NZPsS is managed by an Executive Director who supports the Executive in its work and is an ex officio member of the Executive. National Office staff’s work centres around supporting the NZPsS to provide services and benefits to members and information to the public.

Branches and Institutes

Members and student subscribers can join professional institutes and can participate in the activities of local branches.

National Standing Committee on Bicultural Issues (NSCBI)

The Society has established a National Standing Committee on Bicultural Issues(NSCBI) to advise on appropriate cultural development. In addition the NSCBI contributes to the functioning of the Society, through regular contributions to publications, advice to the Executive and providing advice and expertise in relation to workshops on cultural justice and biculturalism. The NSCBI provides advice and direction to the Executive in relation to the Society’s bicultural commitment.

National Office

The National Office is the gateway for members to access services and resources and the National Office team provide support and assistance to NZPsS members and the Executive.

Veronica Pitt
Executive Director

 Helen Weststrate
 Membership
 

Heike Albrecht
Professional 
Development 

 

Sisilia Joseph
Finance

Strategic Plan

Click to view the Society’s strategic plan and here as a visual version.

Past Presidents of the NZPsS 

Click here to view the list of past NZPsS Presidents

Rules of the Society

The Rules of the Society (PDF) guide the governance and activities of the NZPsS. NZPsS Institutes are also governed by a set of Rules.

Annual General Meeting

The NZPsS AGM is held at the NZPsS Annual Conference in August/September each year. Members of the NZPsS who are, Full Members, Life Members, Associate Fellows and Fellows may vote on items of business conducted at the AGM.

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