Whaowhia te kete mātauranga - Fill your basket of knowledge

It has been my privilege to work with Dr Amohia Boulton over the past 15 years. I am delighted to have the opportunity to highlight some of Amohia’s many achievements and contributions to Māori wellbeing.

Amohia is a leader in the field of Māori health services research with a varied career to date spanning both public policy and academia. Her background is in policy, having worked as a Senior Policy Analyst (Te Puni Kōkiri) and Private Secretary (Māori Affairs) based in Wellington throughout the 1990s.

In 2000, Amohia was awarded a Health Research Council (HRC) Māori Health Training Fellowship enabling her to undertake doctoral study at Massey University under the umbrella of Te Pūmanawa Hauora; the Research Centre for Māori Health and Development. On the successful completion of her PhD, in 2006, she was awarded a HRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship undertaking study at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. There she was able to learn much from the Lheidli T'enneh First Nations people.

Amohia’s research interests are in Māori health services, health governance, health reform, and the interface between health policy and service-level implementation. After completing her post-doctoral study, she joined newly established Whakauae Research for Māori Health and Development as Associate Director. Amohia has been a driving force within Whakauae over the past eight years being integral to the organisation achieving its current status as a nationally recognised, iwi owned research centre. She was appointed Director of Whakauae in 2016 and is currently leading planning for the next decade of its development.

Amohia is recognised both nationally and internationally in health services research. She works tirelessly to support the growth and development of the Māori research workforce nationally. Amohia has reached the point in her career where she is sought after for the contributions she makes to innumerable academic, research and advisory bodies. She is selfless in her commitment to supporting Māori development, and more broadly indigenous development, willingly sharing her extensive knowledge and skills.

Current roles:

Research Centre Director, Whakaue Research Services Limited

Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, AUT

Adjunct Research Associate, Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Victoria University of Wellington

Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Health Services Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington