Rate My Professor Kate Morgaine

Associate Professor Kate Morgaine is a member of the Department of Oral Sciences in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago. Her qualifications comprise BA, DipTch(Sec), DPH, MPH, and PhD. She was promoted to Associate Professor in Oral Sciences effective from 1 February 2026. Additionally, she holds an Associate Professor position in the Health Promotion and Policy Research Unit within the Department of Public Health, Wellington. Her research specializations are dental public health and health promotion, structured around three interlocking domains: programme research covering needs analysis, intervention development, implementation feasibility, and evaluation of impacts and outcomes; practice research on the composition and roles of the public health workforce; and education research concerning teaching methods that enable graduates to practice competently, secure equitable outcomes for Māori, and strengthen public health. She applies mixed methods research designs, specializing in qualitative research methods. Her expertise areas include dental public health, health promotion, programme research in public health interventions, public health workforce studies, dental and public health education research, Māori health equity, and community interventions in oral health.

At the University of Otago, Associate Professor Morgaine has advanced knowledge in public health programme evaluation and oral health promotion through numerous publications. Notable works include "Elite Athletes and Oral Health" (2011, co-authored with S. Bryant, K. McLaughlin, and B. Drummond); "The FarmSafe Programme in New Zealand: Process evaluation of year one (2003)" (2006, with J.D. Langley and R.O. McGee); "Impact evaluation of a farm safety awareness workshop in New Zealand" (2014, with C. Cryer); "Design of an oral health information brochure for at-risk patients" (2015); "Oral health information for at-risk patients in community pharmacies: A feasibility study" (2020, with W.A.E. Aitken); "Challenging structural racism through the development of Māori public health education competencies" (2024, with F. Kewene and S. Crengle); and "What we do matters: Supporting anti-racism and decolonisation of public health curricula in Aotearoa New Zealand" (2024, with N. Veenstra and S. Crengle). She serves as course coordinator for COMD702 Dental Health Services and DENT463 Dental Epidemiology and Public Health 3, and supervises postgraduate students on topics such as early childhood caries and maternal oral health.