National Executive Members

Professor Rhiannon Braund - President

BSc 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. 

Michael Hammond - Vice President

PGDipPhcy (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.

Bronwen Shepherd - Treasurer

BPharm, 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.

Sandy Bhawan

PGCertPhcy, 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.

Sandy is also well known for her contribution and influence on quality improvement initiatives to improve access and optimal use of medicines through her work with the Health Quality and Safety Commission’s Whakakotahi programme 2017 - 2020. In 2019, Sandy led the authorship of Pharmac's Achieving medicine access equity in Aotearoa - towards a theory of change – a national publication identifying the primary drivers for medicine access for national influence.

Sandy was awarded a Fellowship of the Society in 2018 in recognition of her significant contribution to developing wider roles for the pharmacy profession such as Medicines Use Reviews, the Pharmacist prescriber scope of practice and general practice-based pharmacist roles. The designation also recognised her leadership of policy work on the Medicines Management Competence Framework, intern programme accreditation, and the development and implementation of the new Pharmacist Prescriber scope of practice. This included setting the prescriber competencies, training, and accreditation standards.

Sandy is the first Fijian Indian pharmacist to be elected to the National Executive of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand. She is a Pacific Pharmacists Association Intern Mentor, an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland, and a member of the PSNZ Wellington Branch. Sandy is based at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners where she heads up the College’s National Quality Programmes for general practice.

Originally from Fiji, she now resides in Te Awakairangi (Hutt Valley), Wellington with her family.

Keith Crump

MPharm, PG Dip Population Health, PG Dip Pharmacy, Dip Pharm

Keith is currently employed at ProCare Health as a Pharmacist Facilitator, and at North Shore Hospital as a Mental Health Pharmacist, as well as holding a part-time teaching role at Otago University.

Keith has extensive experience across a range of pharmacy related areas, including oncology, cardiology, renal medicine, and infectious diseases. However, it was the work in the psychiatric ward at Wellington Hospital, his previous experience in mental health, plus the challenge of new medicines for mental illness which established Keith’s core area of practice.

Keith has completed a Masters in Pharmacy Practice from the University of Auckland, a Post Graduate Diploma in Population Health from the University of Auckland and a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy from Otago University. He has also served on the Pharmacy Council for three terms (9 years) and is currently secretary of the Clinical Advisory Pharmacists Association.

Paul Larson

BPharm (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.

Brooke McKay

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.

Brooke has been a Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand branch president for three years and a branch committee member for seven years. She is a board member for the  Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand, and has been both an intern and PACT preceptor. 

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.

Mariana Hudson

MPA MPS 

Mariana is the the President of Ngā Kaitiaki o te Puna Rongoā o Aotearoa -The Māori Pharmacists Association (MPA). 

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.

Co-opted members

Samantha Burgess

Samantha 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.

Sian Dawson

BPharm (Hons), PG Dip., M.Ed

Sian is the current President of the New Zealand Hospital Pharmacy Association (NZHPA), having taken up this position in September 2020.

She qualified in the UK, and spent the next 12 years working as a hospital pharmacist.  After obtaining a M.Ed. in Clinical Pharmacy teaching in 1999, she moved to New Zealand with her Kiwi husband. 

In her current role at Te Toka Tumai Auckland as a Clinical Lead Pharmacist, Education, Training & Practice Research, Sian is involved in many aspects of staff development within the department including overseeing the intern training programme and the delivery of undergraduate student placements. Having worked in the UK alongside technicians in advanced roles, she is also keen to support New Zealand pharmacy technicians extend their skill set in a similar way.