New GRI PhD student – Olivia Willoughby
GRI welcomes a new PhD student, Olivia Willoughby
Olivia will be working on the topic of Spatial variations in Māori health outcomes, supervised by Prof. Simon Kingham and Dr. Malcolm Campbell and funded by a GeoHealth scholarship from the Ministry of Health, New Zealand.
Olivia says “I started at UC a few years ago when I was doing my undergraduate degree in Geography. I was introduced to GeoHealth which I became very interested in, and I’ve come back to do my PhD looking at spatial variations in Maori health. In between my undergraduate degree and starting in the GeoHealth Lab I also did a Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Health Science. I wanted to gain a clinical perspective of health and put faces and names to the people with the health conditions I would be researching. I currently work as a Registered Nurse in the Acute Medical Assessment Unit in Christchurch Hospital where I see a huge range of health conditions such as measles, COPD, influenza, diabetic ketoacidosis, alcohol withdrawal, heart failure and pneumonia. It has been great to see the work produced by the GeoHealth Lab and I look forward to being able to contribute to research and offer clinical insight where and when I can”.
Welcome Olivia!