Joanne Mary Baxter is a New Zealand

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

public health medicine physician and academic and affiliates with the

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Ngāi Tahu Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Poi ...

Kāti Māmoe Kāti Māmoe (also spelled Ngāti Māmoe but not by the tribe themselves) is a historic Māori iwi. Originally from the Hastings area, they moved in the 16th century to the South Island which at the time was already occupied by the Waitaha. A ...

, Waitaha and

Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō is a Māori iwi (tribe) in the upper South Island of New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal lands) include the areas around Golden Bay, Tākaka, Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere, Motueka, Nelson and Saint Arnaud, including Taitapu an ...

. She is a professor and director of Kōhatu, Centre for Hauora Māori, and co-director of the Māori Health Workforce Development Unit at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

. Baxter took up the position of dean of the

Dunedin School of Medicine The Dunedin School of Medicine is the name of the School of Medicine that is based on the Dunedin campus of the University of Otago. All University of Otago medical students who gain entry after the competitive Health Sciences First Year prog ...

on 1 July 2022, and is the first Māori woman in the role.

Academic career

Baxter was educated at

Queen Charlotte College Picton ( mi, Waitohi) is a town in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand's South Island. The town is located near the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui, north of Blenheim and west of Wellington. Waikawa lies just north-east o ...

in Picton, where she was head girl in her final year. She was one of ten recipients of a Ngarimu Scholarship for undergraduates in 1982. She has

MB ChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

degrees from the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Otago, where she has been employed since 2000. Baxter is a member of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine (NZCPHM). Her research focusses on Māori health and mental health, health inequalities, Māori health workforce and medical education. She was promoted to full professor effective from 1 February 2020.

Honours and awards

In 2016, Baxter was a key team member of the

Dunedin Study The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (also known as the Dunedin Study) is a detailed study of human health, development and behaviour. Based at the University of Otago in New Zealand, the Dunedin Study has followed the liv ...

led by

Richie Poulton Richie Graham Poulton (born October 1962) is a New Zealand psychologist and the director of the University of Otago's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, which runs the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development ...

, that won that year's Prime Minister's Science Prize. Baxter was a finalist for Te Ururangi Award for Education in the 2017 Matariki Awards, alongside Dame

Georgina Kingi Dame Georgina Kingi is a New Zealand educator who has been principal of the St Joseph's Māori Girls' College since 1987. Kingi grew up in Poroporo, near Whakatane. She is a member of the Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Pūkeko. She attended St Joseph ...

, who won the award, and

Robert Jahnke Robert Hans George Jahnke (born 1951) is a New Zealand artist and educator, well-known for his graphic and sculptural artwork. He is a professor of Māori visual arts at Massey University. Biography and education Jahnke was born in 1951 in t ...

. Baxter has twice been honoured by Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa / The Māori Medical Practitioners Association, winning the Maarire Goodall Award in 2013, and the Ngākau Award in 2019. In 2022, she won the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award at the Osmosis Raise the Line Faculty Awards.

Selected works

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References

External links

* * Living people Year of birth missing (living people) New Zealand women academics University of Auckland alumni University of Otago alumni Academic staff of the University of Otago New Zealand medical researchers New Zealand Māori academics New Zealand Māori women academics Ngāi Tahu people Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō people Kāti Māmoe people People educated at Queen Charlotte College Waitaha (South Island iwi) {{NewZealand-academic-bio-stub