14th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
 

Keynote Speakers

Dr Russell Wills, Children's Commissioner, New Zealand

ADDRESS: Hard-earned lessons: The history and future of child protection in New Zealand

Dr Russell Wills is a community and general paediatrician at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board in Hastings and was appointed as Children’s Commissioner on 1st July 2011.

He trained in medicine in Otago and did his paediatric training in Hampshire and Australia including community paediatric training and a Master of Public Health degree in Brisbane.

Russell was National Paediatrician for Plunket, a senior lecturer at the Wellington School of Medicine and a Community Paediatrician at Wellington Hospital from 1999-2001. He has been a general and community paediatrician at Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings since August 2001, recently as Head of Department and Clinical Director until taking up the current appointment.

Russell has led a number of programmes in family violence intervention and intersectoral community interventions for children and young people. He has held leadership roles in community paediatrics with the Paediatric Society of New Zealand and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and has contributed to publications, national guidelines and projects on autism, family violence, child abuse and medical aspects of children in Child, Youth and Family care.

He lives in Hawke’s Bay and is married with two adolescent sons.