Full name: Northern B Health and Disability Ethics Committee
Short name: Northern B HDEC
Abbreviation: NTB
OHRP(external link) ref: IRB00008715
Please note it is inappropriate to contact committee members directly regarding HDEC matters.
Download HDEC Terms of Reference [PDF, 109 KB]
No meetings were postponed or cancelled due to inability to make quorum.
Membership category: Lay (Ethical and Moral Reasoning)
Date of appointment: 09 June 2025
Current term expires: 08 June 2030
Kate was formerly the Executive Secretary of the AUT Ethics Committee. Prior to this, she worked as a research Contracts Manager for Uniservices Ltd in the University of Auckland's School of Population Health, was Secretary for the University of Auckland's Human Participants Ethics Committee, and the Biological Safety Committee. She has a Master of Arts in philosophy and a Post Graduate Diploma in business. She was on the Working Party of the National Ethics Advisory Commitee's National Ethical Standards, and Royal Society Te Aparangi's Code of Professional Standards and Ethics. She is a member of the Data Ethics Advisory Group (NZ Stats).
Membership category: Lay
Date of appointment: 03 March 2025
Current term expires: 02 February 2030
Joy (Te Parawhau, Te Uriroroi, Patu Harakeke ki Whangārei) is a Senior Kaupapa Māori Researcher in the Health Gain Development Team/Te Whatu Ora and has chaired the Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee (2019-2026), and previously represented the Assistant Vice-Chancellor's Office of Māori and Pasifika on the Massey University Human Ethics Committee. She completed a PhD in Management examining the directorial experiences of Māori directors on District Health Boards.
Membership category: Non-Lay
Date of appointment: 09 June 2025
Current term expires: 08 June 2029
Dr Sharon Kletchko is a retired Specialist Physician, Emergency Medicine Physician, Intensivist and Healthcare Strategy, Planning, Clinical Governance, Quality and Risk Director. Sharon is Canadian and moved to New Zealand in 1983. She attained NZ Citizenship in 1987. She worked in Middlemore Hospital, Mercy Hospital as a Private Physician, the Ministry of Health Wellington, Tauranga Western Bay Health, Bay of Plenty DHB, Nelson Marlborough DHB, Southern DHB, St. John New Zealand Midland, Lakes DHB. She was on the original HDEC B post Cartwright Enquiry.
Membership category: Non-Lay
Date of appointment: 09 June 2025
Current term expires: 08 June 2028
Dr Cheng Kai Jin is currently the Clinical Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Health New Zealand. He has previous experience as a Research Physician for NZ Clinical Research, Health Informatics Fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Improvement, and Resident Medical Officer at the former Waitematā DHB. Dr Jin has a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery and Postgraduate Diploma in Health Informatics at the University of Auckland
Membership category: Non-Lay (Intervention/Observational Studies)
Date of appointment: 09 June 2025
Current term expires: 08 June 2029
John Pearson is a biostatistician and health researcher at the University of Otago, Christchurch. He specialises in the ethics of high throughput biology and artificial intelligence. He completed a PhD in Mathematics at the University of Auckland. He works on healthy aging and genomics and collaborates on cardiovascular, neuro degenerative disease and cancer epidemiology. He has previously been a member of the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee, Health.
Membership category: Non-Lay
Date of appointment: 09 June 2025
Current term expires: 08 June 2030
Dr Chris Hazlewood is a Specialist General Practitioner. He has an interest in ethics and patient safety. In addition to his Medical Degree he has an Honours Degree in Biochemistry. He has experience as a Principal Investigator in phase 2-4 trials.
Membership category: Lay
Date of appointment: 15 September 2025
Current term expires: 14 September 2029
Lydia Wadsworth is an experienced lawyer specialising in health law, public law, privacy and ethics. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Bioethics and Health Law (Distinction) from the University of Otago, where her research focused on legal and ethical issues arising in the context of decision-making capacity and informed consent.
Coming from a family of health practitioners, Lydia has combined her legal career with a longstanding interest in healthcare and ethics. She has worked extensively across the health sector, advising on complex questions of health governance, regulation, human rights, public accountability and professional decision-making. She has also published research on health consumers' rights in the context of health research and clinical teaching and contributes to education and policy discussions in these areas.
As a lay member of Northern B HDEC, Lydia brings expertise in the legal and ethical dimensions of healthcare and health research, together with a practical understanding of the challenges faced by clinicians, researchers and research participants.
