95 | Dr. Juliet Rumball-Smith on Wāhine Connect, Harkness fellowship & public health

Dr. Juliet Rumball-Smith is a public health physician and epidemiologist. Due to a combination of earthquakes, training and jobs, she has lived & worked in a load of different places, including Montreal, Toronto, the winterless north of New Zealand, and a think tank in Los Angeles while a Harkness Fellow in the US. Most recently Juliet has been at the Ministry of Health as Clinical Chief Advisor, in a range of roles including supporting Abortion Law reform, being the Clinical Lead for the initial COVID-19 response and the Clinical lead for the COVID vaccine roll-out. Currently she is Director of Intelligence at the National Public Health Service of Te Whatu Ora and a policy consultant for the WHO. 

Juliet lives in Wellington with her medical husband, 4 teenage children, and 2 dogs. In 2017 she set up Wāhine Connect, a charitable trust designed to support women in the health sector by connecting them with mentors and providing a structured mentoring programme. It’s now a community that involves nearly 600 volunteer mentors, and has helped more than 560 women mentees. 

In this episode, we discuss her journey into medicine and public health, her passion for research fostered by the Harkness Fellowship, and the variety of roles and positions she has worked in. She discusses in detail the creation of Wāhine Connect, the inspirations behind it, its kaupapa and intentions, and the positive impacts the program has had.

You can find more information on Wāhine Connect here: https://www.wahineconnect.nz/

Chapters

• 0:00 Juliet Rumball-Smith
• 1:14 Finding medicine
• 3:13 Finding public health
• 4:29 Harkness Fellowship
• 10:02 Shifting families inter-continentally
• 13:12 Variety of jobs: WHO/NPH Director of Intelligence/Clinical lead in COVID response
• 18:13 Wāhine Connect
• 24:05 Acquiring sponsorship and non-profit sustainability
• 27:43 Two different programs of Wahine Connect