Rate My Professor Justine Camp

Associate Professor Justine Camp (Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha), of the University of Otago's Division of Health Sciences, serves as the inaugural Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor Māori, a role she assumes in January 2025. Her extensive career includes positions as Associate Dean (Māori) for the Otago Medical School, research Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine in Dunedin, and Co-Director of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research (Te Koronga) centre. She has lectured for many years at both the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic, and has held governance roles including with the Healthier Lives National Science Challenge. Previous fellowships encompass work with the A Better Start National Science Challenge investigating big data impacts for Māori.

Camp earned her PhD in 2021 from the University of Otago with the thesis "Te Tautarinui o Matariki: A whānau health compass," which developed the first Kāi Tahu-created health model for whānau across the lifespan and generations, funded by Brain Research New Zealand. Her Master's degree examined the impact of type 2 diabetes on whānau. Research specializations include whānau wellbeing, type II diabetes mellitus impacts on families, big data research, data sovereignty, Māori perspectives in health teams, paediatric sleep health, and obesity prevention, particularly for Māori and Pacific communities. She has led projects such as Moemoeā (Māori-led sleep project), Te Kāika DiRECT (type 2 diabetes remission study), Restoring the balance (women's heart health), and Whakatipu. Key publications include "Sleep and parenting in ethnically diverse Pacific families in southern New Zealand" (Sleep Health, 2022), "Further reductions in the prevalence of obesity in 4-year-old New Zealand children" (International Journal of Obesity, 2022), "The measurement of young children's nocturnal sleep health and associations with caregiver-reported behaviours" (Sleep Health, 2024), "Experiences and Acceptability of a Weight Loss Intervention for Pasifika Adults Living With Overweight or Obesity" (Nutrients, 2024), and "A DiRECT approach to weight loss in a culturally diverse, low-income population" (Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 2025). Her work promotes Māori flourishing in health sciences academia and research.