Riana Manuel (born 1972/1973) is a New Zealand nurse, healthcare manager and chief executive of the

Māori Health Authority Te Aka Whai Ora – the Māori Health Authority (MHA) is an independent New Zealand government statutory entity tasked with managing Māori people, Māori health policies, services, and outcomes. The Health Authority will work alongside the Minis ...

which came into being in July 2022. Manuel is of

Ngāti Pukenga 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, a ...

, Ngāti Maru and

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

descent. She grew up in Manaia,

Coromandel Coromandel may refer to: Places India *Coromandel Coast, India **Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements ** Dutch Coromandel *Coromandel, KGF, Karnataka, India New Zealand *Coromandel, New Zealand, a town on the Coromandel Peninsula *Coro ...

the daughter of a nurse and an ambulance driver; her brother is a doctor. Her mother set up a rest home and small hospital in Coromandel. As a teenager she went to a Māori boarding school where only the

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

was spoken (known as full immersion). Manuel is a registered nurse and has based her career in community and Māori healthcare. She was nurse director at Waikato District Health Board and chief executive officer of Hauraki Primary Health Organisation and Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki, a rural

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 ...

based health provider in the

Hauraki Hauraki is a suburb located on the southern North Shore of Auckland, the largest metropolitan city in New Zealand. It is under the local governance of the Auckland Council. History The traditional name for the western coastline in Hauraki wa ...

area. While Te Korowai services have a Māori focus only about half of its patients were Māori, and its approach achieved better outcomes for all patients. In December 2021 she was appointed chief executive of the interim

. Her aim is to ensure that people in both rural and urban areas have services appropriate to their communities, rather than applying a universal approach to healthcare.

References

External links

Riana Manuel, Chief Executive of the Interim Māori Health Authority
Interview with Manuel o
Waatea News
21 December 2021
Māori Health Authority CEO Riana Manuel
on RNZ, 26 March 2022 Year of birth missing (living people) 1970s births Living people New Zealand public servants New Zealand women public servants 21st-century New Zealand public servants New Zealand healthcare chief executives New Zealand healthcare managers Ngāti Pūkenga people Ngāti Maru (Hauraki) people Ngāti Kahungunu people New Zealand nurses {{NewZealand-med-bio-stub