Massey's newest Fulbright winners

Associate Professor Cindy Kiro and Masters graduate Frank Pega are Massey University’s newest Fulbright alumni.

Associate Professor Kiro (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine) received a Fulbright – Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga Travel Award to present on the intersection between indigenous health and public health at Harvard University, and at the University of Hawai’i in Honolulu.

"This Fullbright - Ngā Pae Travel Award gave me an opportunity to consider the New Zealand health system's strengths and weaknesses,“ says Dr Kiro.  “It confirmed that while there is a great deal of fragmentation within the primary health sector, there is also a strong basis for developing a more integrated approach consistent with both indigenous models of care under development, and best practice emerging internationally."

She is an Associate Professor of Public Health and Head of the School of Public Health at Massey University Albany.

Mr Pega was awarded a Fulbright – Ministry of Science and Innovation Graduate award. He is a social epidemiologist with research interests in the social determinants of health and health equity.

He will research the impact of family and in-work tax credits on the health of adults at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, while working towards a PhD from the University of Otago.

“The United States government established tax credits for families similar to our Working For Families tax credits," he says. "US researchers have studied the impact that these credits have had on adult health in the US. I am stoked to be able to collaborate with some of the pioneers in this area of social epidemiology. This will provide many additional insights for my study of the situation in New Zealand.”

Mr Pega graduated with an MSc from Massey University in 2008. His Master’s thesis investigated Health Policies in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Transsexual People.

The Fulbright programme offers New Zealand students and researchers the opportunity to study, teach and research in the United States. Scholarships are also given to their American counterparts to study in New Zealand.