SPEAKERS
Below are the bio's of our speakers and workshop hosts who will be presenting at the Sands National Conference 2022.
For full descriptions of their sessions, please click here.
Thank you so much to our incredible speakers for sharing your knowledge with us at conference, we appreciate your time, generosity of spirit, and commitment. As without you, conference wouldn't be possible.
For full descriptions of their sessions, please click here.
Thank you so much to our incredible speakers for sharing your knowledge with us at conference, we appreciate your time, generosity of spirit, and commitment. As without you, conference wouldn't be possible.
Annie Anderson (Keynote Speaker)
Bio: Annie Anderson has a beautiful reverence for life, a strong faith, and a love of people. She has a Bachelor of Education (BEd) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning (Grad Dip) and as a secondary educator devotes her time to empowering NZ youth and equipping them with the tools and skills to realise their potential. Annie has recently released her first book ‘Your Soul is Wintering’ which is a quietly brave, achingly beautiful, and insightful, articulate expression of the grief, loss, and recovery process of baby loss. Annie resides in Christchurch with her family — her husband Rob, three gorgeous earthside children Jai, Arabella, and Rose, their two angels who watch on from above, and her mischievous husky Kobe. When she is not with her family and friends, you will find her writing, indulging her love of chocolate, or immersing herself in nature. Website: www.annieanderson.co.nz Facebook: Annie Anderson - Author Instagram: @annieanderson_nz Keynote Speaker topic: Finding flow within grief's water Session topic: Resilience & wellbeing through all of life's seasons |
Billie Bradford
Bio: Billie Bradford is a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Billie is an Expert Midwifery Advisor with 10 years experience as a local coordinator for the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC). She has published numerous papers on stillbirth and fetal movements. Session topic: Care, connection, and social distancing: The challenges of baby loss during a pandemic |
Jen Crawford
Bio: Jen Crawford lives in the Mangakino area and works at an accounting firm, while currently studying a Bachelor of Business, Accountancy. She is a mum to Sophie who is three, and to two angel babies. Jen is interested in helping bereaved parents, as well as parents that have to follow the path of IVF to conceive. Session topic: The myth of the ‘straight-forward’ pregnancy: A story of babies, IVF and loss' |
Gretchen Pomare
Bio: Dr Gretchen Pomare is a New Zealand-trained perinatal pathologist who lives in Auckland. The New Zealand Perinatal Pathology Service (NPPS) comprises 6 perinatal pathologists who are centered in 4 major centres in NZ. Gretchen's talk at the Sands National Conference 2022 will be aimed at health professionals, rather than bereaved whanau. Session topic: The Perinatal Post Mortem |
Ainslee Jacobson
Bio: Ainslee Jacobson is the team administrator for the NPPS (New Zealand Perinatal Pathology Service) and comes from a consumer background, being the past-president of Multiples NZ. Ainslee is employed by the Auckland District Health Board, working remotely in Wellington. Session topic: National Perinatal Pathology Service Session topic: Multiples NZ -supporting bereaved whanau when they were expecting multiples |
Kate Hicks
Bio: Kate Hicks is a full-time Mum who voluntarily created Aotearoa's only online birth trauma support website, My Birth Story. Kate's mahi has since evolved to include education and advocacy around birth trauma and she is currently establishing Birth Trauma Aotearoa, a Charitable Trust dedicated to birth trauma in Aotearoa. Session topic: Birth trauma – An experience of loss, an opportunity for healing |
Emily Davidson
Bio: Emily Davidson resides in Taranaki with her husband and 3 living children. She is a trained artist and teacher, with a passion for the Arts. Emily has experienced multiple miscarriages and her angel daughter Hope was born in 2011 and lived for 14 courageous hours. Hope’s short life led her to become a committee member of Sands Taranaki a few years later. Currently, she is the South Taranaki team leader. “It is an absolute privilege to be presenting at the Sands Conference this year, I’m looking forward to sharing my experience of carrying a baby with a terminal diagnosis and about the medical team that so carefully supported my family in creating a unique palliative care pathway. I hope that this presentation opens a healthy discussion around how we deliver options and pathways to whanau and how we can adapt them to ensure the best outcome for the individuals we are supporting” Session topic: The importance of informed choices at the time of an unexpected diagnosis Session topic: Parents Panel |
Vicki Culling
Bio: Vicki Culling PhD is a bereaved parent. She works as an educator in the area of perinatal and infant loss, providing online and in-person training for professionals and volunteers who work with bereaved parents, families and whānau. Her goal is to change the landscape of baby loss in Aotearoa NZ. Session topic: Baby & infant loss in Aotearoa NZ: State of the nation Session topic: When we know better, we do better: Understanding and learning from bereaved Māori mothers’ experiences of the health system Session topic: Support Meeting |
Cheryl Elsey
Bio: Cheryl Elsey is a business owner in sunny Golden Bay. She has traveled the world, lived and worked in many countries gaining knowledge and life experience. Cheryl lives with her husband Ian, and together for 20 years they have navigated multiple baby losses and lived with empty arms. She volunteers for Sands Golden Bay and helps bereaved parents online. Session topic: IVF and multiple loss – A personal journey of resilience Session topic: Parents Panel |
Andrea Olliver-Thompson
Bio: Andrea Olliver-Thompson is the founder of Huggable Hearts NZ, a charity providing tangible keepsakes to families who are experiencing or have experienced the loss of a baby or child. She also runs creative workshops in Hamilton through Huggable Hearts to help families with their grief. Andrea is a bereaved parent, who lives in Hamilton. Workshop topic: Art for grief workshop & Making memories workshop |
Natasha Evans
Bio: Natasha Evans is a bereaved parent from Wellington and a scientist. Natasha had her first child, Pippa, in 2014 and her second daughter in 2016. She has been a Sands volunteer since 2017. Session topic: “Just be happy” - Resolving birth trauma after baby loss and subsequent children |
Nik Mounter & Katrina Bootsma
Bio: Nik Mounter and Katrina Bootsma are senior staff nurses at Wellington NICU who have been NICU nursing for 25 and 21 years respectively and are on the NICU palliative care team there. Katrina is also a bereaved parent and her son Joel was in Wellington NICU for 6 weeks. Nik and Katrina will share their experiences of end-of-life care in the NICU setting. Session topic: NICU – when the journey comes to an unexpected end |
Cynthia Ward
Bio: Cynthia Ward is the founder and CEO of True Colours, she is also a Nurse Specialist. She specialised in palliative care, supporting children and their whānau. Bereavement support is an aspect of Cynthia’s mahi. Cynthia completed her Masters with a focus on what was important for the child who lives with a life-threatening illness. In 2019 she completed her PhD with the focus on a model of care that is important for children with serious illnesses and their families. Cynthia’s vision is that all children and young people who live with serious health conditions, along with their families have appropriate support to enhance their quality of life. Session topic: Voices of mothers - Voices of fathers Workshop topic: An opportunity for women to hear each other' workshop |
Stephen Parkinson
Bio: Stephen Parkinson is a psychotherapist at True Colours Children’s Health Trust and has worked there since it was founded in 2004. Stephen completed a Master’s in Health Science in 2019, his research encompassed spiritual care for children and their families. Stephen has been a trainer in psychotherapy for over 25 years. He facilitates a monthly national forum for health professionals on paediatric palliative care. At True Colours he supports bereaved parents, particularly fathers, children, and young people with serious illnesses and their families. Session topic: Voices of mothers - Voices of fathers Workshop topic: Just for dads workshop |
Darjee Sahala (She/Her)
Bio: Darjee Sahala (She/Her) is a bereaved mother and a midwife since 2004. She worked as a homebirth midwife in Colorado, USA, before losing her son, Brona, in childbirth in 2018. After his death she worked within the bereavement community for 9 years. She volunteered for the MISSfoundation (similar to SANDS), and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (a memorial portraiture non-profit). She authored her memoir, columns on grief, and other media on bereavement content. Darjee is an artist and created 3 museum exhibits for baby loss in Colorado. She is a Compassionate Bereavement Care Provider and a HOPE mentor, through the MISSfoundation. She has been an occasional speaker to midwives and the bereavement community. Darjee has been at the Waikato DHB specializing in births that end in loss since 2018 when she immigrated as a single mother to her rainbow baby. She now works in the termination clinic for those families making one of the hardest choices. She also identifies as pansexual and fights for the reproductive rights of all pregnant people. Session topic: Loss in the LGBTQIA+ community |
Pania Mitchell
Bio: Pania Mitchell (Ngāruahinerangi ki Taranaki, Ngāti Rakaipaaka ki Nūhaka, Te Aitanga o Hauiti ki Tologa Bay) works as a social worker at Te Korowai Whanau Services in Porirua. She is a bereaved mama to Manaia and Manawawai and a member of Sands Wellington-Hutt Valley. Session topic: When we know better, we do better: Understanding and learning from bereaved Māori mothers’ experiences of the health system Session topic: Support Meeting |
Maree Robertson
Bio: Maree Robertson - He uri ahau nō Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa me Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi hoki. Ko Te Awakairangi tōku kainga noho. Ko Maree Robertson tōku ingoa. I am the māmā of Lucy Esma Rose. My beautiful daughter Lucy died two weeks before her second birthday in September 2008. I live in Te Whanganui-a-Tara with my husband, our three living tamariki and our treasured 17-year-old Labrador, who has caught many of our tears in the years following Lucy’s death. I work as a registered Addictions Clinician and Mental Health Practitioner. I am committed to supporting others on their Hauora journey, drawing on my lived experience with grief and loss. Session topic: When we know better, we do better: Understanding and learning from bereaved Māori mothers’ experiences of the health system Session topic: Parents Panel |
Pania (Lisa) Paraku
Bio: Ko Tainui te Waka. Ko Moehau te Maunga. Ko Ohinemuri te Awa. Ko Tikapakapa te Moana. Ko Te Pai o Hauraki te Marae. Ko Pania (Lisa) Paraku Ahau. E aku nui, e aku rahi tēnā koutou katoa. Our Jasmine Lee brings me to this mahi and kōrero, she was born beautiful and still in 2006, according to her pathology report her passing was …”an unexplained intrauterine demise”. Such harsh and clinical language used in our system for such a huge loss. My people explained that it was not time for her to move into te ao marama – the world of light, and she would be with us through life’s journeys. She is 16 this year, her sweet 16th a week before this conference and therefore, I speak with and on behalf of our beautiful girl to honour her special milestone. I believe in the vision of the PMMRC (Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee) being a member since 2017, working for system change. We would be grateful to share our journey with you and acknowledge your contribution to the outcomes we are seeing. Session topic: When we know better, we do better: Understanding and learning from bereaved Māori mothers’ experiences of the health system Session topic: The gift of whānau information for positive change – the role of the PMMRC |
Claire MacDonald
Bio: Claire is a midwife and midwifery advisor for the New Zealand College of Midwives. She has strong interest in working towards equitable health outcomes, not just monitoring. Claire brings a national midwifery perspective to the PMMRC (Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee). Session topic: The gift of whānau information for positive change – the role of the PMMRC |
Yvonne Daymond
Bio: Ko Nakorotubu te maunga, Ko Wainibuka te awa, No Tailevu, Fiji ahau, Ko Daymond toku whanau, Ko Yvonne toku ingoa. I am honoured to have been invited to serve a role with PMMRC (Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee) as it continues the mahi towards systemic change that builds equity for Maori, Pasifika and ethnic woman in a health system and maternity sector that is dealing with a number of challenges and pressures. I belong to a club that I have never wanted to acknowledge or discuss – I am a survivor of having lost five babies, my blessing is that I managed to have and grow three and they have been the balm that has kept me going. This year my children would’ve been 35, 32, 30, my first survivor is 26yrs and living his best life, my last two were the fraternal twins of the surviving kids who are kick ass, 22 and 17 alike. I have farewelled each child in a dream and remember each goodbye hug. I feel grateful that they said goodbye to me before the harsh reality of medical stuff, dealing with a health system that showed a traumatised teenager/woman little sympathy, no explanation and burials. Session topic: The gift of whānau information for positive change – the role of the PMMRC |
Dr Robin Cronin
Bio: Robin is a Research Midwife Specialist based in Auckland. Her midwifery experience, spanning over three decades, includes home birth to high level hospital care and continuity of care, and she continues to work in clinical practice at Middlemore Hospital. She also lectures at the Auckland University of Technology and the University of Auckland. Robin is a member of international research teams working on perinatal bereavement, maternal sleep, stillbirth and fetal movements. Her research on stillbirth prevention is cited in clinical guidelines in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Session topic: The gift of whānau information for positive change – the role of the PMMRC Session topic: Care, connection, and social distancing: The challenges of baby loss during a pandemic |
Dr Rose Elder
Bio: Rose is an obstetrician and gynaecologist working in Wellington. Currently she is the clinical leader for obstetrics at Capital & Coast DHB. She has been a local coordinator for PMMRC (Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee) for several years. Session topic: The gift of whānau information for positive change – the role of the PMMRC |
Laura Hett
Bio: Laura Hett is a degree-qualified nutritionist and yoga teacher. She is passionate about inspiring people to take control over their own health. Laura believes that food is medicine and our body has the incredible ability to heal, no matter what’s going on, we just need to feed it the right food, thoughts, and movement. Meditation is an incredible tool for slowing down in this crazy, fast paced world! Laura loves to guide restorative yoga classes and meditation as it’s the best way to recalibrate the nervous system and the stress response for great health and longevity. Workshop topic: Meditation workshop On Friday morning before conference starts for the day we will be holding a meditation workshop presented by Laura Hett. This is an optional extra & not compulsory. Website: www.wildr.nz Facebook: Wildr Wellness by Laura Instagram: @wildr_wellness |