Whānau Resilience National Evaluation Panel

The following people have been selected for the National Panel to assess the Whānau Resilience ROIs. The panel will produce a shortlist of providers to go through to Stage Two of the procurement process.

Justine Pivac-Solomon (Chair)

With a background in public health, social innovation and provider development, Justine has worked across multiple government agencies to design, procure and support delivery of family violence services. She has chaired both national and regional panels for MSD (through its predecessors, Community Investment and Family and Community Services).

More recently, she has driven innovation and design thinking into government services and led the redesign of budgeting services to Building Financial Capability. As part of her current role, she is leading the approach and implementation of Whānau Resilience for MSD and is the non-voting Chair of the national panel.

Donna Matahaere-Atariki

Donna (Ngāi Tahu, Taranaki, Te Atiawa) has worked across public, business, community and tribal sectors. Chair of Te Rūnanga o Otakou, she remains committed to advancing the interests of her community and Māori more generally. A passionate advocate for social justice, Donna is a member of E Tu Whānau and a member of the previous National Taskforce on Violence.

Sripriya Somasekhar

Sripriya is an advocate for gender equality with two Master’s degrees and a PhD on ethnic family violence in New Zealand.

Her doctorate focussed on Indian migrant women’s experiences of family violence in New Zealand. She explored the ways in which Indian migrant women who experience family violence navigate their safety in the context of migration. She is extremely passionate about increasing migrant women’s access to support when experiencing violence.

Her work with ACC as a Senior Injury Prevention Specialist in family violence helps towards her dream of working to preventing violence in diverse communities. She brings this expertise into cross government mahi, including training service providers around engaging with migrant families at risk of family violence as well as ensuring the voices of marginalized communities are heard on the government level.

Edwina James

Edwina is of Fijian-English descent, and recently migrated to New Zealand after living in both Australia and Fiji. With a background in behavioural science and research, Edwina has worked across multiple government agencies. This includes the Behavioural Insights Unit within the Department of Premier and Cabinet in New South Wales working on the design and implementation of large-scale projects to shift behaviour and improve outcomes.

Since moving to New Zealand, Edwina has been working at MSD to improve the funding and accessibility of family violence services. Edwina leads the family violence team with the portfolio of Whānau Resilience, Elder Abuse Response Service and Safety and Stability Services.

Rachel Jones

Rachel descends from Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri and Ngāti Manu. Rachel lives in Wellington with her partner and four children, where they are an active whānau of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna. Rachel is passionate about driving equity through a Kaupapa Māori approach for whānau Māori and communities.

Rachel has extensive experience across multiple government agencies and strongly believes the voice of whānau, communities, hapū and iwi must be at the centre of government policy and decisions, to enable stronger, thriving and more resilient whānau. She previously worked for the Family Violence Services team at MSD and helped establish the approach for Whānau Resilience. Rachel now works for Oranga Tamariki and continues to advocate for the voices of whānau and communities.

PJ Devonshire

PJ was the General Manager of Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Iwi Authority for 10 years, as well as a Regional Advisor for E Tu Whānau. He has been a member of the Iwi Leaders Forum; including part of Iwi Leaders Advisory teams. His previous roles include being the Director of Maori Education at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, the Maori Funding Advisor at JR McKenzie Trust and a Maori Operational Policy Analyst at Department of Internal Affairs.

Serena Curtis -Lemuelu

Serena is MSD’s Programme Manager for Māori and Pacific Responsiveness Programmes as well as Crown Agency Project Manager for the Joint Work Programme.

Serena has extensive experience in programme and project management; strategic and operational change management; business transformation; and mentoring and training expertise across a range of sectors.

Shona Hobson (regional representative – Te Tai Tokerau)

Shona whakapapa’s to Te Hiku and is currently a Partnering for Outcomes Advisor with Oranga Tamariki for the Te Tai Tokerau region. Shona brings extensive knowledge on working with Iwi, Kaupapa Mäori providers and contracting for collectives. She also has experience in co-design, with emphasis on whānau voice. Shona is based in Te Hiku and is well-versed in working in partnership with the community to achieve shared outcomes.

She also brings previous experience as a Strengthening Families Co-Ordinator, Police Area FV Co-Ordinator, with a focus on preparing community responses to Bail applications and supporting Police on several family violence homicides. Shona led the establishment of the Regional Funders Forum - Te Tira Whai Oranga, which has resulted in a cross sector contracting of initiatives, such as Hope House; an initiative set up to support whānau with alcohol and drugs; and family violence-related needs.

Huia Busby (regional representative – Auckland)

Huia’s professional background spans 19 years of working in the NGO sector. She has a qualification in Mäori studies, major in social work and a post graduate for managing and supervising staff. She is a registered social worker with ANZASW and the SWRB. Her portfolio consists of overseeing 57 contracts across 18 funders, which included managing a number of Family Violence services and programmes funded by MSD, MOJ and MOH.

Huia brings to the panel a wealth of experience and knowledge, specifically in the frontline delivery of family violence initiatives, and has a deep understanding of the importance of ensuring providers have the right capability and capacity to deliver safe and appropriate services to whānau.

Huia is a current Lead Advisor In Oranga Tamariki for the Auckland region.

Rose Walker (regional representative – Midlands)

Rose is current an Oranga Tamariki Partnering for Outcomes Advisor, based in Rotorua. She previously provided contract management to the Auckland, Taupo and Turangi areas. She manages contracts for both Family Violence and Sexual Violence providers and brings with her extensive knowledge of the family violence sector, and the dynamics associated with family violence.

She enjoys working alongside NGOs delivering in this sector, and across the Iwi Māori Sector. She was raised in a kaupapa Māori environment in Ruatahuna and is very well-versed in the application of the Treaty of Waitangi principles. Rose also has experience of being a panel member as she was recently on the panel for a Remand home in Tauranga.

Roger Boulcott (regional representative – Wellington)

Roger has been a chair and a panel member of several panels during his time at Work and Income, Community Investment and Oranga Tamariki. He brings experience in funding, contract and relationship management. Roger also has NGO experience and an understanding of family violence from his time as Area Manager, Relationships Aotearoa where they had several related Family Violence contracts.

Kiriana Marshall (regional representative – Wairarapa)

Kiriana is a regional advisor with Oranga Tamariki, working in a community development/ contracting role in the Wairarapa region. She brings with her credible skills, knowledge and experience to ensure a fair and reasonable appraisal of Whānau Resilience services. She has experience in, both, a voting and non-voting (Chair) capacity for Building Financial Capability services, and the Elder Abuse and Response Service.

Kiriana’s regional community knowledge extends from Wellington, Horowhenua, Manawatu, Wairarapa. She has been working closely in partnership with Iwi, and has been instrumental in the establishment of a number of Iwi-led contracts as informed by Te Ao Māori.

Jane Hopkinson (regional representative – Tairawhiti & Hawke’s Bay)

Jane is the Lead Advisor with Oranga Tamariki for the East Coast, Partnering for Outcomes. She has worked in the Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti areas through many of the previous iterations of the Ministry of Social Development. She has a strong working relationship with providers in her community and other Government Agencies who also have a vested interest in seeing tamariki and whānau supported to become free of violence. Jane currently sits on a number of collaborations (governance and advisory) across Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti and has a good overview of these communities.

Deb Pengelly (regional representative – Tasman)

Deb is an Advisor for Partnering for Outcomes, Oranga Tamariki in the South Island. She is experienced in relationship management, partnering and managing contracts for Oranga Tamariki and MSD in the Upper South region for social services. This includes contract managing Family Violence, Sexual Violence and Family Violence networks in Nelson, Marlborough, Tasman and the West Coast.

She has previously worked for Community Investment, MSD and Family and Community Services (FACS) as a Contract Manager and Funding Advisor.

Moyra Crum (regional representative – Southern)

Moyra is currently an Advisor, Partnering for Outcomes with Oranga Tamariki based in Dunedin. She has worked in a range of roles associated with supporting and resourcing services for families over a number of years. Moyra believes that whānau led change is critical to empowering them to realise their own vision of who and how they want to be.

She is passionate about people working together for change to build a better country for all tamariki and whānau.

Blair Williams (regional representative – Canterbury)

Blair is an Advisor within Partnering for Outcomes, Oranga Tamariki. He has a background in family therapy and management within the NGO sector, including the design and delivery of family and sexual violence intervention programmes. He was the workforce lead in the implementation training for the Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilot in Christchurch and was a member of the expert design group for ‘family violence, sexual violence and violence within whānau’ which released a national workforce capability document in 2016.

Most recently Blair has led a regional series of training for the ‘family harm’ sector in Christchurch. This has been in collaboration with the ‘family harm’ collective, ISR, and the Ministry of Education. He has a passion for early and effective intervention, as well as sustained support for those recovering from the impacts of family violence.