People

NZPRI has a core team of 20 members who front our deliverables. NZPRI also has a strong membership of over 70 research experts across four research groups. Together we produce research which is relevant to policy makers in business, government and the community.

Meet the team

Gail Pacheco
Gail Pacheco
Director

Gail has considerable experience leading funded projects involving both academic and industry collaborations.

Email: gail.pacheco@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Lisa Meehan
Lisa Meehan
Deputy Director

Lisa’s experience spans international governmental organisations, the NZ public sector and economic consulting.

Email: lisa.meehan@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Katherine Ravenswood
Katherine Ravenswood
Associate Director (Human Resource Management)

Katherine’s expertise includes care/work regimes, gender and employee wellbeing, and inequality, power and voice at work.

Email: katherine.ravenswood@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Alexander Plum
Alexander Plum
Senior Research Fellow, Leadership Team

Alex's research interests comprise labour economics and social welfare.

Email: alexander.plum@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Thomas Schober
Thomas Schober
Senior Research Fellow

Thomas' research interests comprise health, family, and labour economics.

Email: thomas.schober@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Leon Iusitini
Leon Iusitini
Senior Research Fellow

Leon’s research interests include family economics, child development, and Pacific health and well-being.

Email: leon.iusitini@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Liqun
Liqun "Lee" Zhuge
Research Fellow

Lee's primary academic focus is labour economics, where he explores issues of inequality and discrimination driven by social norms, culture, and policies.

Email: lee.zhuge@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Wei-Lin Chen
Wei-Lin Chen
Research Fellow

Wei-Lin's primary field of research is public and development economics, with specialisations in the economics of crime and anti-poverty programmes.

Email:  wei-lin.chen@aut.ac.nz

Mary Hedges
Mary Hedges
Research Developer

Mary works in the areas of labour economics, behavioural economics and life-course econometric modelling.

Email: mary.hedges@aut.ac.nz

Marcus Ho
Marcus Ho
Leadership Team

Marcus’ research and teaching themes lie at the nexus of wellbeing and performance, entrepreneurship and HRM.

Email: marcus.ho@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Marjolein Lips-Wiersma
Marjolein Lips-Wiersma
Leadership Team

Marjo leads the Map of Meaningful Work project, which creates a holistic development survey to guide meaningful work, lives and societies.

Email: marjo.lipswiersma@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Tamara Tesolin
Tamara Tesolin
Institute Manager

Tamara looks after the day-to-day running of NZPRI. Her work days are Mondays, and Wednesdays - Fridays.

Email: tamara.tesolin@aut.ac.nz

Alexandra Turcu
Alexandra Turcu
Research Officer

Alex contributes to a range of research projects.

Email: alexandra.turcu@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Livvy Mitchell
Livvy Mitchell
Research Officer

Livvy contributes to a range of research projects. She works remotely from Wellington.

Email: livvy.mitchell@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Linda Kirkpatrick
Linda Kirkpatrick
Research Officer

Linda contributes to a range of research projects.

Email: linda.kirkpatrick@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Patricia Dela Cruz
Patricia Dela Cruz
Institute Administrator, Research Assistant

Patricia assists with the running of NZPRI and contributes to a range of research projects.

Email: patricia.dela.cruz@aut.ac.nz

Who we work with

Our team consists of a number of researchers, associates and project advisors.

Read more

Q+A with the team

We sat down with our members to ask questions about their career and what they enjoy doing to unwind in their spare time.

Read more

Contact us

For any general enquiries, please get in touch.

Contact us