Occupational therapy (OT) is a healthcare profession that involves the use of assessment, intervention, consultation, and coaching to develop, recover, or maintain meaningful occupations of individuals, groups, or communities. The field of OT consists of health care practitioners trained and educated to support mental health and physical performance. Occupational therapists specialize in teaching, educating, and supporting participation in activities that occupy an individual's time. It is an independent health profession sometimes categorized as an allied health profession and consists of occupational therapists (OTs) and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs). OTs and OTAs have different roles, with OTs licensed to complete comprehensive occupational therapy evaluations. Both professionals work with people who want to improve their ability to participate in meaningful occupations.
A dental therapist is a member of the dental team who provides preventive and restorative dental care for children and adults. The precise role varies and is dependent on the therapist's education and the various dental regulations and guidelines of each country.
Frances Moran Rutherford was an artist, an occupational therapist and educator who was instrumental in gaining recognition for occupational therapy in New Zealand.
Clare Hocking is a New Zealand occupational therapy academic, and New Zealand's first occupation therapy professor. She is currently a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology and an honorary professor at Plymouth University.
Ngaire Margaret Kerse is a New Zealand medical academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Auckland.
Alice M. Theadom is an English-born New Zealand psychologist and academic. As of 2020 she is a full professor and Rutherford Discovery Fellow at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Judith McAra-Couper is a New Zealand academic and a professor of midwifery at Auckland University of Technology.
Debra Lynn Waters is a New Zealand exercise physiologist and medical researcher in the field of health ageing, director of Gerontology Research and professor at the University of Otago.
Nicola M. Kayes is a New Zealand health psychologist, director of the Centre for Person Centred Research and professor of rehabilitation at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Hendrika Martine Crezee, known as Ineke Crezee, is a New Zealand linguist. She is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology, specialising in healthcare interpreting and in the education of interpreters and translators.
Camille Elizabeth Anne Nakhid is a professor of social science and public policy at Auckland University of Technology. In 2018 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to ethnic communities and education.
Jacqueline Louise Whalley is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology, specialising in software engineering and computer science education.
Donnabella Castillo Lacap-Bugler (née Lacap) is a Filipino–New Zealand academic microbiologist, and is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology, specialising in extremophiles, soil microbial ecology, and oral microorganisms.
Yvonne Thomas is an English-New Zealand occupation therapist and academic, and is a full professor at Otago Polytechnic, specialising in occupational health, wellbeing and homelessness.
Ageing Well was one of New Zealand's eleven collaborative research programmes known as National Science Challenges. Running from 2015 to 2024, the focus of Ageing Well National Science Challenge (AWNSC) research was sustaining health and wellbeing towards the end of life, particularly in Māori and Pacific populations in New Zealand.
Michelle Ji Yeon Yoo is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology, specialising in food digestibility and the development of value-added foods.
Erica Hinckson is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She is interested in how the built environment affects physical activity, and how to use approaches such as citizen science and participatory research to achieve large-scale change.
Amanda Smith is a New Zealand design academic, and is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology, specialising in textile design, printed textiles, and seamless knitwear. She previously worked as a knitwear designer in Japan and New Zealand. Smith is head of AUT's School of Design, and founded the Textile and Design Laboratory.
Colleen Michele Higgins is a New Zealand academic plant pathologist, and is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology, specialising in plant viruses and environmental microbiology. Higgins won an award for her teaching in 2013, for a course she developed on ethics and emerging health and biological technologies.
Elizabeth C. Smythe is a New Zealand midwifery and nursing academic, and is an emeritus professor at the Auckland University of Technology. Smythe's research focuses on hermeneutic phenomenology, which is the study of interpretive structures of experience, to improve healthcare experiences and clinical practice. Smythe led the introduction of the Doctor of Health Science programme at the university. She retired in 2022.
