Cervantée Wild

I am an interdisciplinary health researcher interested in improving health services and systems for children, young people and their families. I work alongside clinicians in the intersection between clinical and population health to prioritise participant voices in service improvement and systems change. My training is in health sciences, public and population health and political studies, with experience in both quantitative and qualitative health research. My research interests increasingly span the social and political determinants of health and health inequities.

I joined the department as a Girdlers’ New Zealand Health Research Council fellow and I currently work on an NIHR-funded study to understand family experiences of Long Covid in order to support self-care and timely access to services.

I completed my PhD with the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland in 2020, which focused on improving outcomes for families involved in a novel child and adolescent obesity intervention programme while addressing health equity. The mixed-methods research investigated the challenges surrounding engagement in health services for childhood obesity and long-term persistence of healthy lifestyle change. Since then I have contributed to a range of studies on multidisciplinary obesity intervention and enabling fair and informed involvement in child health research, and I remain an honorary academic with the University of Auckland.

I am a co-investigator on an ongoing study of healthcare workers’ experiences of PPE access during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand as part of the PPE disinfection for potential reuse project with the University of Auckland. This project focuses on the environmental impact of PPE disposal in addition to increasing PPE supply.

I’m also an associate with Healthier Systems, a global health research consultancy working with organisations such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank, and we have recently worked on non-communicable disease policy implementation in LMICs.