Suzanne Marie Crengle is a New Zealand Māori academic, of

Kāti Māmoe Kāti Māmoe (also spelled Ngāti Māmoe) is a Māori iwi. Originally from the Heretaunga Plains of New Zealand's Hawke's Bay, they moved in the 16th century to the South Island which at the time was already occupied by the Waitaha. A centu ...

, Kāi Tahu and Waitaha descent and as of 2020 is a full professor at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

, specialising in public health medicine.

Early life

Crengle was born in

Waiouru Waiouru is a small town in the Ruapehu District, in New Zealand's Manawatū-Whanganui region. It is located on the south-eastern North Island Volcanic Plateau, north of Palmerston North and 25 kilometres south-east of Mount Ruapehu. The tow ...

, and grew up in Wellington and Auckland. Her father was in the navy. She attended Mana College, where her parents had to complain to the local MP to have the streaming system changed so that it was possible for her to both be in the top class and take te reo Māōri.

Academic career

Crengle graduated in medicine from the University of Auckland in 1985. She notes that there were three other Māori students in her class, whereas nowadays a typical cohort might have fifty. She then completed a master's degree titled ''Mā Papatuanuku, ka Tipu ngā Rākau: a case study of the well child health programme provided by Te Whānau O Waipareira Trust'' in 1997, supervised by Fiona Cram. She then completed a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

titled ''The management of children's asthma in primary care: Are there ethnic differences in care?'' at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

. Crengle then moved to the

, rising to full professor. She resides in Invercargill, where she practises one day a week. Her research focuses on issues of inequity in the health system, where she says some metrics are getting worse, such as the percentage of Māori women participating in cervical screening. She also teaches in public health and Māori health at the university. In 2021 she was appointed to the

Māori Health Authority Te Aka Whai Ora () was an independent New Zealand government statutory entity tasked with managing Māori health policies, services, and outcomes. The agency was one of four national bodies that oversaw New Zealand's health system since 2022, ...

as part of the reformation of the health system. She said "It's exciting that there's such an explicit focus on equity and improving Māori health outcomes across the whole reform."

Selected works

* * * *

References

External links

* Crengle'
inaugural professorial lecture
in 2022 {{DEFAULTSORT:Crengle, Sue New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics People from Waiouru New Zealand public health doctors Academic staff of the University of Otago University of Auckland alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Kāti Māmoe people Ngāi Tahu people New Zealand Māori women academics New Zealand Māori academics People educated at Mana College Waitaha (South Island iwi) Living people