Rate My Professor Lucy Gray

Lesley Gray is Associate Professor in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, University of Otago, Wellington. She joined the department in 2008 initially as a senior lecturer and has amassed over 30 years of experience establishing and managing services in public health and primary care. Before moving to New Zealand, she held lecturing positions at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Her academic qualifications include a Masters in Public Health from the University of Glasgow, a Master of Science in Interprofessional Collaboration from a London institution, Fellowship of the UK Faculty of Public Health, and a PhD in Emergency Management from the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University, Wellington. She currently serves as Medical Trainee Intern 6th year General Practice Module Co-Convener and Trainee Intern Elective Convener.

Gray's research centres on health risk communication and behaviour, health equity, and disaster risk reduction. Her interests encompass understanding health risk behaviours and the role of health professionals in influencing them positively, with a focus on marginalised groups including those requiring size inclusive healthcare. She is New Zealand Principal Investigator for the international Research Alliance in Disaster and Emergency Medicine collaboration and participates in the Applied Research on Communication in Health Group. Notable contributions include interprofessional education projects such as the Tairāwhiti interprofessional education programme and the longitudinal interprofessional study. Key publications feature 'Sizing up disaster risk reduction: A qualitative study of the voices of big bodied people in Aotearoa New Zealand' (2022), 'Factors influencing individual ability to follow physical distancing recommendations in Aotearoa New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic: A population survey' (2021), 'A taboo topic? How general practitioners talk about overweight and obesity in New Zealand' (2018), and 'The long and short of it: A qualitative descriptive analysis of self-identifying fat people's experiences of Aotearoa New Zealand's COVID-19 vaccination centres' (2025). She has garnered recognition including a 2020 COVID-19 Rapid Response grant from the Health Research Council and Ministry of Health, and an international award for disaster risk reduction efforts. Her scholarship has earned over 1,387 citations, underscoring influence in equity, inclusive healthcare, and disaster risk fields.