Co-Directors
Dr Toni Pitcher
Toni joined the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) in 2024 as a director, alongside her Research and Operations Manager role at the NZ Brain Research Institute (NZBRI) in the Department of Medicine. Her main research interests are Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and she has invaluable experience in longitudinal cohorts and epidemiology.
Associate Professor James Foulds
James has been involved with the CHDS since 2015, and became a director in 2023. His research is at the interface of mental health, substance use and criminal offending. He also convenes postgraduate teaching in forensic mental health at University of Otago, and works clinically as a forensic psychiatrist. He has provided expert evidence related to his research in several NZ jurisdictions including the Court of Appeal, the High Court and Coroner’s courts.
Principal Scientist
Professor Joseph Boden
Joe has been with the Study since 2005. His research interests are substance use, mental health, and maladaptive behaviour. He has worked with the Ministries of Health, Justice, Social Development, and the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, in developing policy and advice across diverse issues relating to health and substance use.
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Jess Kerr
Jess works across the Departments of Population Health and Psychological Medicine. She trained in health psychology and worked in Australia for several years before returning to NZ. Her research interests include psychiatric epidemiology, later life outcomes associated with child and adolescent mental and physical health, intervention targets to reduce premature mortality, and non-communicable disease epidemiology and global health.
Research Fellows
Dr Michaela Pettie
Michaela of Ngāti Pūkenga, completed her PhD in 2020 which focused on the genetic and environmental contributions to neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders. Since completing her PhD, she has been researching disparities in mental health, eating disorders, and substance use among diverse populations, including Māori and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Dr Nathan Monk
Nathan completed his PhD on the CHDS in 2023. His doctoral work used network analysis to investigate mental health problems as complex systems. Since graduating, he has worked in Māori/Indigenous health research, primarily looking at physical health inequities for Māori living with psychosis. He is passionate about health equity and informing health improvement through data.
Research Administrator
Bridget Kinnersley
Email CHDS.UOC@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 372 6706
Emeritus Professors
Emeritus Professor John Horwood
John was the lead biostatistician for the Study from 1977, the very start, until he retired in 2021. His research interests were psychosocial development in adolescence and young adulthood.
Emeritus Professor David Fergusson
David was the founder of the CHDS in 1977. His principal research interests lay in the design analysis and interpretation of correlational data. He retired in 2015 and sadly passed away in 2018.