Rate My Professor Johanna Reidy

Johanna Reidy is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Health at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and Lecturer in Health Systems in the Department of Public Health, Wellington, at the University of Otago. She holds a PhD from the University of Otago (2012) on "Working Together: Governance at the interface between primary care and public health," an MA with Distinction in Translation from Victoria University of Wellington (2003), an LLB, a BA (Hons) in French and German, a PGDipArts in English Language, and a PGCert in Public Health endorsed in health systems. Trained as a lawyer, Reidy has worked in service contracting, planning, evaluation, and programme management roles in District Health Boards, freelance in the health sector, and with the World Health Organization.

Her research specializations include governance at the systems interface between primary care and public health, research methodologies and evidence for innovations in primary health care, prioritisation of health systems and resources, equity in health outcomes, community-led action, systems thinking, ownership in health services, and the impacts of school uniform design and policy on health and educational outcomes. Reidy teaches postgraduate papers such as PUBH738 Global Health Law and Ethics and PUBH742 Global Health and International Health Systems at Otago, health systems to fourth-year medical students, and convenes an Introduction to the New Zealand Health System summer school course. Key publications encompass "Equity, power and resources in primary health care reform: insights from Aotearoa New Zealand" (2025, International Journal for Equity in Health), "The ownership elephant is becoming a mammoth: a policy focus on ownership is needed to transform Aotearoa New Zealand's health system" (2023, New Zealand Medical Journal), "Bringing primary health and community care in from the cold in the New Zealand health reforms?" (2022, Journal of Primary Health Care), "Reviewing School Uniform through a Public Health Lens: Evidence about the Impacts of School Uniform on Education and Health" (2021), and "Good progress for children coupled with recalcitrant inequalities for adults in New Zealand's journey towards Universal Health Coverage" (2015). She serves as principal investigator on a University of Otago Research Grant-funded pilot project "Sameness as fairness? Exploring the impacts of school uniforms on health and equity in Aotearoa New Zealand" (2023). Reidy was part of a team awarded the 2021 CAPHIA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Public Health. Her contributions inform policy on health system transformation, equity, and community involvement in Aotearoa New Zealand.