Rate My Professor Donna Cormack

Dr Donna Cormack (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kai Tahu) is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington, within the Division of Health Sciences. She holds a BA (Hons) and MA, and earned her PhD from the University of Auckland. Cormack's career includes affiliation with Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare, where she was a recipient of a Māori Health Research Fellowship. She has recently moved to a position at the University of Auckland as Associate Professor at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, while maintaining her research role at Otago.

Cormack's research specializations encompass Māori health and cancer control, focusing on the collection and classification of ethnicity data in New Zealand to measure and monitor health disparities. Her work examines disparities in cancer outcomes and access to cancer services for Māori. She contributes to key projects such as the Differential Colon Cancer Survival by Ethnicity in New Zealand and Unequal Treatment: The Role of Health Services, conducted with Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare. Additional research programmes include the Research to Interrupt Racism and (In)equity (RIRI), addressing racism through a kaupapa Māori lens, and investigations into whānau support during hospital transfers away from home for Māori.

Selected key publications include 'Racism and health service utilisation: A systematic review and meta-analysis' (2017), 'Māori Medical Student and Physician Exposure to Racism, Discrimination, Harassment, and Bullying' (2024), 'The impact of racism on subsequent healthcare use and experiences for adult New Zealanders: a prospective cohort study' (2024), 'Māori experiences of multiple forms of discrimination: findings from Te Kupenga 2013' (2019), and 'Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai: The operationalisation of Māori data sovereignty in Aotearoa: A scoping literature review' (2026). Her scholarship on racism, indigenous data sovereignty, social exclusion, and public health inequities has advanced equity efforts in Aotearoa New Zealand.