Rate My Professor Amber Logan

Dr. Amber Logan serves as a Research Fellow in the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington, within the Faculty of Medicine and the Health Sciences Division. She is affiliated with the He Kāinga Oranga: Housing and Health Research Programme and the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, where she contributes to the Māori strand of the Public Health and Urban Regeneration Programme. Logan completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health at the University of Otago in 2022, with her doctoral thesis titled Housing and Health for Whānau Māori. A registered psychologist specializing in health, she graduated from the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Before pursuing advanced research, she held senior roles in child and family services, bringing practical experience in psychology to her academic work.

Logan's research focuses on the critical intersections of housing quality, urban design, and health outcomes, with a particular emphasis on whānau Māori and residents of public and community housing. Her publications include co-authoring A Whakawhanaungatanga Māori Wellbeing Model for Housing and Urban Environments (Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2024), Placemaking for Tenant Wellbeing: Exploring the Decision-Making of Public and Community Housing Providers in Aotearoa New Zealand (Wellbeing, Space and Society, 2025), Cultivating Wellbeing: Healing Effects of an Urban Māra Kai (Community Garden) in Community Housing in Aotearoa New Zealand (Local Environment, 2025), Placemaking and the Complexities of Measuring Impact in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public and Community Housing (Architecture, 2025), and Transport and Wellbeing of Public Housing Tenants—A Scoping Review (Urban Science, 2025). She also contributed to He Kāinga Oranga: Reflections on 25 Years of Measuring the Improved Health, Wellbeing and Sustainability of Healthier Housing (Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2023). As a member of the He Kāinga Oranga team, Logan shared in the 2021 Rutherford Medal, New Zealand's premier research award. Of Ngāti Kahungunu iwi, she has lectured and presented internationally on housing, health, and wellbeing for whānau Māori, influencing policy and practice in sustainable urban development.