National Executive Members
National Executive Members
Governance for the organisation is provided by a seven member elected National Executive of Society members. The current National Executive members are all registered pharmacists. The Rules of the Society also makes provision for a permanent appointment for the President of Ngā Kaitiaki o te Puna Rongoā o Aotearoa - The Māori Pharmacists Association (MPA) and co-opted members drawn from other organisations. Currently, there is one: a Pharmacy Technician, who attends all National Executive meetings.
Elected Members
Professor Rhiannon Braund - PresidentBSc BPharm PhD(Otago) FPS FNZCP RegPharmNZ Rhiannon Braund is a Professor at the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre, University of Otago. Her research centres on access equity and the safe use of medications. She has published widely on adherence, and "Medicines Use Reviews" and has studied the reclassification of trimethoprim and sildenafil as well as the introduction and evaluation of Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technicians. | |
Brooke McKay - Vice President Brooke is an early career pharmacist who has already been successful in her nine-year career. She became a community pharmacy owner in Upper Hutt at the age of 25. Her pharmacy employs 22 staff, so she understands the challenges facing pharmacy owners. She is passionate about pharmacist consultation services, vaccinations and embracing tikanga Māori and te reo Māori and enabling all pharmacists and pharmacy staff to provide culturally safe pharmacy practice. | |
Bronwen Shepherd - TreasurerBPharm, BBA Bronwen is a Business Development Manager for Green Cross Health, with professional and commercial experience across broad spectrum of Community Pharmacies, and is a Director of five pharmacies in Wellington. Bronwen has participated in an extensive range of governance, advisory and other collaborative sector roles, in order to attain sustainable and positive change for pharmacy and patients, including with the Pharmacy Guild, District Health Boards, Ministry of Health, Medsafe, Pharmacy Council, PHARMAC and Primary Health Organisations. She is currently serving as a Board Member for the Pharmacy Defence Association and Trustee of the New Zealand Pharmacy Education and Research Foundation. | |
Michael HammondPGDipPhcy (Dist) DipLeadMgt BPharm (Hons) MPS RegPharmNZ After graduating from the University of Auckland, Michael started his career at North Shore Hospital before moving to develop and implement a clinical pharmacist facilitator service for the Primary Health Organisation (PHO) in Rotorua. He has recently finished leading COVID-19 Pharmacy Establishment Team in the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in community pharmacy across the three Auckland districts and is now looking at projects in the childhood immunisation space. Michael is also the project manager for the quality improvement programme Safety in Practice, as well as a number of other primary care initiatives for Waitematā and Auckland districts. To support him in this role, he also works casually as a pharmacist at Waitematā’s North Shore Hospital. He is enthusiastic about learning and continuing education; being the first New Zealand pharmacist to complete the Diploma of Leadership and Management through the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. He is currently also on the Auckland Branch of PSNZ. Michael is passionate about patient safety and expanding the roles and services for pharmacy. | |
Sandy BhawanPGCertPhcy, BPharm (Hons), BSc. RegPharmNZ, FPS Sandy is a registered Pharmacist with over 25 years’ experience in most practice settings available to pharmacists in the NZ Health and Disability sector. This includes community pharmacy, the School of Pharmacy, University of Otago; Dunedin and Wellington Hospital, Pharmacy Council of New Zealand, Te Awakairangi PHO, and more recently Pharmac Te Pātaka Whaioranga – a Crown entity. |
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Lanny WongAfter graduating from the University of Auckland, Lanny embarked on a dynamic journey that led her from urban to regional settings, culminating in the proud ownership of a flourishing rural community pharmacy in Mangawhai Te Tai Tokerau. Armed with Te Reo Māori from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Lanny's education forms a robust foundation in pharmacy practice, equity, and patient care.
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Mariana HudsonMPA MPS Mariana Hudson grew up in Ōpōtiki, in the Bay of Plenty. Her first job in pharmacy was at a local pharmacy, at the young age of 15. Her passion for the industry led her to start pharmacy school in 2002, after having her first child. She had her second child while at pharmacy school and registered as a pharmacist in 2007, following her internship in Gisborne. In 2020, Mariana was the recipient of an HRC grant (Health Research Council of New Zealand) by where her project was a partnership between the Bay of Plenty District Health Board and The Centre for Health, located in Tauranga. It involved the contribution of whānau Māori to the development and use of the LifeCurve App, now being utilised all over New Zealand. In 2021, Mariana was awarded a 3-year Māori Cardiovascular (CV) Research Fellowship from the Heart Foundation of New Zealand to support her learnings of Kaupapa Māori Philosophy. Her project is developing a Road Map for Research Funders to assist in achieving Equity in Cardiovascular Health. | |
Paul LarsonBPharm (Hons), PGDipClinPharm (Distinction), PGCertTravMed, RegPharmNZ, MPS Paul has owned Larson’s Pharmacy, a large community pharmacy (incorporating a NZ Post and Kiwibank) in Green Island, Dunedin for 23 years and had also previously owned a city based pharmacy in Dunedin and a rural pharmacy in Ranfurly. His previous worklife for approximately 8 years prior to community pharmacy included working at the National Poisons Centre in Dunedin, Dunedin Hospital as Medicines Information Pharmacist, and as a Hospital Pharmacist at Palmerston North and Gisborne. He also owns Henrietta Soaps Limited a wholesale and online retail soap business. He has a wide range of Governance experience and is also currently sitting as a board member on: The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of NZ (Wellington), Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (Wellington), Wellsouth Primary Health Network (Dunedin), Propharma Southern Advisory Committee (Christchurch) and the Dunedin Urgent Pharmacy. He is a past board member of: Consumer NZ (Inc) incorporating a role as Chair of their Audit and Risk Committee, Pharmaceutical Services Limited, New Zealand College of Pharmacists, Pharmacy Industry Training Organisation, New Zealand Pharmacy Education and Research Foundation and the Franchise Representatives Board of NZ Post and Kiwibank. He is very passionate about pharmacy and the wider heath sector and how pharmacy can work together with our other health professional colleagues to bring improvements to our patient’s lives. | |
Co-opted members |
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Samantha BurgessSamantha is the 2020 New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards - Pharmacy Technician of the Year winner. Samantha has been working “on the Ground floor” in New Zealand Pharmacy as a Pharmacy Technician Level 5 and 6 and a Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technician (PACT) for over 10 years. Samantha completed her training while working on the front line for Green Cross Health at Life Pharmacy Coastlands where she has also been Dispensary Manager for the last 3 years. Samantha has been at the forefront of change for pharmacy technicians and is honoured to be the first Pharmacy Technician on the National Executive for the Society. Being the first represented Technician Samantha brings a unique voice to the National Executive, she is passionate about supporting the technician position and pathways in which we can grow the profession to help colleagues and our communities. | |
Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand Incorporated (the Society) is a voluntary body that provides professional support, education, training and career development for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The Society is incorporated under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908. The Society is registered with the Charities Commission and is a charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005 (registration number CC42418).