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Governance Committee
Lydia Tsen (Treasurer)
She is currently New Zealand Government Affairs Leader at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Lydia is a Chartered Accountant and has been admitted to the High Court of New Zealand.
Lydia holds a Bachelor of Management Studies (1st class Honours) and Bachelor of Law (1st class Honours) from the University of Waikato, as well as a Master in Public Policy (1st class Honours) from the University of Auckland.
Colleen Brown KSO MNZM
Colleen is an educationist and disability advocate. She writes for the Listener, is a published author and a disability commentator. Colleen has governance experience as a former local body politician and community advocate, serving on Manukau City Council for nine years and for 15 years as a Counties Manukau representative on the DHB. She is currently Chair of Disability Connect.
Dr M.Claire Dale
Claire is Honorary Research Fellow in the Pensions and Intergenerational Equity Research Hub of the Economic Policy Centre at the University of Auckland Business School. Her focus there currently is housing affordability. Her involvement with CPAG and knowledge learnt led her to found Ngā Tāngata Microfinance Trust in 2011, which, with capital funding from Kiwibank, provides fees- and interest-free small loans for asset-building and/or debt-relief for people on low incomes. She remains a trustee at Ngā Tāngata Microfinance, and is also a director on the board of the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Richard Greissman
Rich spent his professional life as an educator including in New York State, rural Zimbabwe and as a teacher and administrator for more than 30 years at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
Rich and his wife emigrated to New Zealand in 2018 to retire. In retirement he divides his time among numerous volunteer civic pursuits, his passion for architectural and street photography and being a grandparent. He was most recently MC for our 2024 CPAG Post Budget event in Auckland.
Chris Jones
Chris has over 20 years experience in non profit management and administration. Her experience working in New Zealand non profits includes management experience at The Wilson Home Trust. Be. Accessible. Raeburn House and Age Concern.
Her voluntary work includes Governance and Advisory boards including COGS Northshore, Auckland Communities Foundation and school committees.
Sally Ward
Sally has extensive management experience in children focused non-profit and government organisations in New Zealand and overseas.
She has worked extensively in the end-to-end management of programmes including developing business and raising funds. Roles in Presbyterian Support Northern included General Manager SHINE, at Variety Children’s Charity she was Programme Director and Sally is currently the Property and Services Manager- Sisters of St Joesphs.
Professor Carol Wham
Carol is Honorary research fellow and Professor Emerita at Massey University. Experienced dietitian with expertise in paediatric and gerontology nutrition, dietary assessment, longitudinal studies, dietetics and public health nutrition.
She is a Board member and Scientific Director of the NZ Nutrition Foundation. Previous member of the NZ Dietitians Board 2007-2015 and Massey University Academic Board 2018-2024.
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Our Staff
Our dedicated staff undertake the day to day mahi of CPAG. Most of our staff work part-time, so please be aware that emailing them may not get a response straightaway, but we will respond when we can.
Communications & Media Officer
Comms
comms@cpag.org.nz
Research Officer: Yu (Harry) Shi
E: research@cpag.org.nz
Admin & Volunteer Co-ordinator: Lyn Amos
E: admin@cpag.org.nz
Research Committee
The Research Committee oversees, supports and promotes the quality research activity of Child Poverty Action Group.
Dr. Gerry Cotterell
Gerard Cotterell has been a member of CPAG since 2009 and is a member of the Research Committee. Gerard is a sociologist with wide-ranging research interests that include: understanding the impacts of neoliberalisation in Aotearoa New Zealand, the political economy of the welfare state and welfare reform and its consequences, inequality, and comparative social policy. In his Master’s degree and his PhD Gerard examined the impact of welfare reforms in both Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom, from the beginning of the neoliberal reforms in the 1980s.
Alan Johnson
Alan currently works at the Ministry for the Environment as a Principal Analyst. He previously worked as the Senior Social Policy Analyst at The Salvation Army's Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit. He was the author of The Salvation Army's well-regarded State of the Nation Reports from 2009 to 2019 as well as most of its reports on housing.
In his spare time, he is a community activist in South Auckland. For 15 years he was a school board trustee and a sports club administrator and coach. He is a life member of the Manurewa Marlins Rugby League Club. Alan is also a trustee for two housing NGOs, the Auckland Housing Association and Auckland Community Housing Trust. Formerly he was chair of Community Housing Aotearoa.
He has an academic background in town planning and economics and was involved in Auckland local government for over 20 years both as a politician and bureaucrat.
Alan is a contributor to CPAG's work around housing, incomes policy and macro-economic policy and provides much of the background analysis for our annual review of Government's budget.
Associate Professor Mike O'Brien ONZM
Mike is an Honorary Academic at the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland and has previously been CPAG’s Convenor. He has written extensively on poverty and social security issues. Mike chaired the Alternative Welfare Working Group in 2011. He has also held board positions at Te Waipuna Puawai and the Auckland City Mission in addition to being a member of the Impacts of Poverty and Exclusion Policy Group for the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services. He is currently a member of the Peter McKenzie Project Trust.
He has written extensively on poverty and social security issues and is the joint author of Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. He co-edited CPAG's flagship publication, Our children, our choice: priorities for policy (2014) and contributed chapters to that key publication. He also contributed to CPAG's earlier reports' Left Further Behind: How policies fail the poorest children in New Zealand (2011) and Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008) along with the first two editions of CPAG's Our Children: The Priority for Policy (2003). He has written Workfare: Not fair for kids? (2005) and The Impact of Debt on Low Income People, together with an examination of social security reform in New Zealand over the last two decades, Poverty, Policy and the State (published by The Policy Press UK, 2008).
His other books are New Welfare New Zealand (published 2007 by Cengage Publishing in Melbourne), a more detailed look at recent changes in welfare policy. Social Welfare, social exclusion - a life course frame (published 2007 by VarpingeOrd& Text, Sweden) is a collection of essays he has contributed to and co-edited with Swedish academic Lars Harrysson, and includes writings by 11 international authors on how people can become excluded from basic opportunities, rights and services in society.
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Life Members and Founders
The people named below founded and hold the heart of Child Poverty Action Group. We recognise their contributions and ongoing support as life members of CPAG.
Susan St John Michael O’Brien Helen Bull Alan Johnson
Janfrie Wakim Joe Carson Jenny Hassell Innes Asher
Claire Dale Mary Mowbray Gerry Cotterall Frank Hogan
Ian Hassell ( decd) Llyod Morris ( decd)
Regional Networks
The Child Poverty Action Group is based in Auckland and is supported by passionate volunteers from around Aotearoa. Groups meet regularly in Whangarei, Tauranga, Wellington, Nelson, Dunedin and Christchurch to raise awareness of child poverty locally.
Whangarei
Tim Howard, Greg Waite, Chris Farrelly
admin@cpag.org.nz
Western Bay of Plenty
Charlotte van Doorn
wbop@cpag.org.nz
Wellington
Nikki Turner
wgtn@cpag.org.nz
Nelson / Marlborough
Jean Simpson
cpag2016nn@gmail.com
Canterbury
Sara Epperson
chch@cpag.org.nz
Otago
Jude Sligo
admin@cpag.org.nz
Associates
Julie Timmins
Read bio
Julie is the mother of four and was a founding member of CPAG. Julie has worked for CPAG for many years in administration and communication roles. She has a Masters in Equality Studies from UCD (Dublin) and is passionate about how we treat all children, the role of unpaid work, and gender equality. For several years, Julie was CPAG's Trustee representative on Ngā Tāngata Microfinance Trust.
Dr Louise Humpage
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Principal Evaluation and Research Specialist.
Louise was formerly an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Auckland. Her academic research focused on welfare reform, Maori affairs policy and refugee policy and settlement and public support for social citizenship (the idea that we have rights to a basic level of economic and social security). She co-authored a contribution to Left Further Behind: How Policies Fail the Poorest Children in New Zealand (2011), Income Support in the Wake of Covid-19: Survey (2020) and Income Support in the Wake of Covid-19: Interviews (2021).
Her research now focuses on housing, in particular the impact of mixed tenure redevelopments on residents.
Toni Ashton
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Toni Ashton (PhD) is an honorary Professor in Health Economics in the School of Population Health, University of Auckland. Her primary field of research and publication is in the organisation and funding of health systems. She is especially interested in strategies for improving the quality and efficiency of the NZ health system and in improving access to health services by the people who need those services most. Her involvement with CPAG was stimulated by a concern about the increasing inequality in NZ and the need to find evidence-based and politically acceptable strategies for reversing this trend.
Janet McAllister
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Of Pākehā descent, Janet has a background in journalism, policy analysis and publishing. She has contributed to CPAG research on children & Covid policies, welfare support adequacy and the accommodation supplement
Peter O'Connor
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Professor O’Connor is an internationally recognised expert in applied theatre and drama education. His research focuses on applied theatre in marginalised and vulnerable communities. It has led to developing cutting-edge models of interdisciplinary praxis that explore the nexus of critical and creative pedagogies, aesthetics and social justice. He was the founding director of Everyday Theatre, a national theatre in education programme on preventing family violence and child abuse. His work in Christchurch schools following the series of earthquakes lead to UNESCO funded research and programme development and the development of the Teaspoon of Light Theatre Company. In 2012 he was named the Griffith University School of Education and Professional Studies Alumnus of the Year. Peter's most recent research includes multi and interdisciplinary studies on the creative pedagogies and the arts, the nature of embodied learning and the pedagogy of surprise. Peter supervises Doctoral and Masters students using arts based methodologies with a social justice focus. He is an experienced supervisor of the PhD with creative component.
Dr Jenny Ritchie
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Associate Professor at Te Puna Akopai, the School of Education, at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.
Dr Jenny Ritchie has been involved in the early childhood care and education sector since the 1970s as a childcare worker, kindergarten teacher, parent, teacher educator, education researcher, and grandparent. Her research and teaching focuses on supporting educators and others with regard to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, as well as social, cultural, and ecological justice in early childhood care and education.
Len Cook
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Len Cook has been a Government Statistician in New Zealand, and a National Statistician of the United Kingdom. He was born in Dunedin, but has mainly lived in Wellington. Len has been involved in a variety of public policy initiatives including Member of the Royal Commission on Social Policy and Past President of the Institute of Public Administration.
Len supports CPAG because he believes children are our most important social investment, and the fact that New Zealand’s mothers continue to deliver some 60,000 babies a year as they did during the post–war baby boom years gives us the richest possible foundation for the future of all New Zealanders. All of those babies need a fair chance in health, housing and education as they grow. This requires research, advocacy and engagement, and CPAG puts a spotlight on how children live and what it is associated with and results in, that lifts the accountability of all of us for this part of our society. How we value the most important role of bringing up children whoever does it is a reflection of the values and conscience of our society, and as we change as a society we need the sort of vigilance CPAG provides. We should expect to be discomforted by any of our failures in this role of our society, especially where that is based on strong evidence.
Dr Vicki Carpenter
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A registered primary school teacher, Dr Vicki Carpenter has taught and/or held leadership positions in Porirua, Manurewa, Tekapo, Karetu, Moerewa, and the Hokianga. More recently, Vicki lectured at the University of Auckland in initial and postgraduate teacher education. With a strong interest in Freirean pedagogy, Vicki’s research centres on schooling in low SES (urban and rural) communities, teacher education, and sexual orientation issues in teacher education.
Currently Vicki is a second term elected Board member and Deputy Chairperson of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, and Chairperson of its Audit and Risk sub-committee. She is a monitor of Teacher Education programmes for the Education Council.
She recently co-edited Twelve thousand hours. Education and poverty in Aotearoa, New Zealand 2014, Dunmore), and has co-edited five other education texts. Vicki has published and co-published a wide range of articles and chapters. Social justice and issues surrounding equity are central themes in her research and writings.
Dr Nick Fancourt
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Nick is a New Zealand trained paediatrician now based in Australia. His clinical and research activities span range of issues related to equity in child health, particularly childhood pneumonia and youth justice systems.
Ways you can get involved
Become a member
As a member of the Child Poverty Action Group you will become part of a group committed to encouraging and promoting the development of better policies for children and young people.
Fundraise
Fundraising is a creative way to get out in the community and help support Child Poverty Action Group.
Volunteer
Volunteers are vital to the work Child Poverty Action Group does.