Our People – Team MND
National office
Support Advisors
The MND New Zealand Support Advisors provide free, individualised community-based support and advocacy for almost every person with motor neurone disease in New Zealand. They work together with people living with MND, their whanau/families and carers, to enable them to have the best quality of life possible.
If you are not sure which support advisor to contact, or have a general MND support question, please contact Jo Kelly (Support Advisor Lead).
Regional Support Advisor
Regional Support Advisor
Regional Support Advisor
Regional Support Advisor
Regional Support Advisor
Moira Young
Area(s): Capital & Coast, Hutt, Wairarapa, Mid Central, Whanganui (South)
Ph: (04) 569 2825
or 021 0278 4494
National council
Chair
Lucy Haberfield
I am an experienced Corporate Support Manager with a background in Finance. I have been a Chartered Accountant since 1995 and also hold a marketing diploma. I have a particular interest in strategic and business planning.
I am a keen trail runner and multi-sporter, having completed the Captain Cooks Challenge on the Queen Charlotte Track. I am married with three adult children and a daughter-in-law. My husband and I live in Greytown and I commute daily to Wellington.
My history with MND is that my father passed away as a result of MND in 1999. I’m keen to give something back to my community and I feel MND is a good fit.
I am a keen trail runner and multi-sporter, having completed the Captain Cooks Challenge on the Queen Charlotte Track. I am married with three adult children and a daughter-in-law. My husband and I live in Greytown and I commute daily to Wellington.
My history with MND is that my father passed away as a result of MND in 1999. I’m keen to give something back to my community and I feel MND is a good fit.
Deputy Chair
Caron Palmer
My husband and I live on a lifestyle property just outside Leeston in South Canterbury with a menagerie of farm animals, pets, and horses.
My introduction to Motor Neurone Disease began 7 years ago, when Dr. Claire Reilly contacted me about marketing and branding support for the Association. It goes without saying that I was eager to help in any way I could. I developed marketing campaigns to promote brand awareness across the annual national walk and MND awareness month for the first five years before joining the council in 2019.
Over the course of my career, I have primarily worked in sales and marketing roles for large multinational companies. These days, I am a principal consultant for my own marketing and consulting business, Hound + Steed Strategic Marketing & Consulting, where I work with clients predominantly in Australia.
My introduction to Motor Neurone Disease began 7 years ago, when Dr. Claire Reilly contacted me about marketing and branding support for the Association. It goes without saying that I was eager to help in any way I could. I developed marketing campaigns to promote brand awareness across the annual national walk and MND awareness month for the first five years before joining the council in 2019.
Over the course of my career, I have primarily worked in sales and marketing roles for large multinational companies. These days, I am a principal consultant for my own marketing and consulting business, Hound + Steed Strategic Marketing & Consulting, where I work with clients predominantly in Australia.
Council member
Alan Stanley
I am a consultant neurologist currently working in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. I completed my training in Internal Medicine and Neurology in Cape Town, South Africa. I have been qualified in Neurology since 2015. I moved to New Zealand in 2018.
I have been privileged to care for people with motor neurone disease throughout my career. I have always admired the brave and positive manner in which the majority of people manage to face the condition, however I am also aware of the intense support that they need to help them do this.
Organisations such as MND New Zealand play an extremely important role in providing, coordinating, and advocating for this support at a practical and legislative level.
I have been privileged to care for people with motor neurone disease throughout my career. I have always admired the brave and positive manner in which the majority of people manage to face the condition, however I am also aware of the intense support that they need to help them do this.
Organisations such as MND New Zealand play an extremely important role in providing, coordinating, and advocating for this support at a practical and legislative level.
Council Member
Melanie Glenn
I grew up in rural Missouri USA and attended medical school at the University of Kansas (KU) where I met my husband, Charley.
We moved to Miami in 2008 where I completed a neurology residency and a fellowship in neuromuscular medicine. During this time, I began seeing patients with MND and knew right away I wanted to continue the journey.
Charley and I had two children while in Florida and then moved back to Kansas City where I became an assistant professor at KU Medical Center in 2013. Over the next five years I evaluated and diagnosed many patients with MND and worked as part of a healthcare team in a weekly MND multidisciplinary clinic supported by the ALS Association (ALSA). Through ALSA, I participated in fundraising activities and worked to improve access for rural patients via a telemedicine multidisciplinary clinic.
At KU I was also involved in neuromuscular research, including several MND studies. In late 2018, Charley accepted a position as a consultant forensic pathologist with the ADHB and we moved with our two children to New Zealand.
Currently I practice as a very part-time neurologist seeing patients in rural Kansas USA via telemedicine from my home in Auckland.
We moved to Miami in 2008 where I completed a neurology residency and a fellowship in neuromuscular medicine. During this time, I began seeing patients with MND and knew right away I wanted to continue the journey.
Charley and I had two children while in Florida and then moved back to Kansas City where I became an assistant professor at KU Medical Center in 2013. Over the next five years I evaluated and diagnosed many patients with MND and worked as part of a healthcare team in a weekly MND multidisciplinary clinic supported by the ALS Association (ALSA). Through ALSA, I participated in fundraising activities and worked to improve access for rural patients via a telemedicine multidisciplinary clinic.
At KU I was also involved in neuromuscular research, including several MND studies. In late 2018, Charley accepted a position as a consultant forensic pathologist with the ADHB and we moved with our two children to New Zealand.
Currently I practice as a very part-time neurologist seeing patients in rural Kansas USA via telemedicine from my home in Auckland.
Council Member
Estelle Arts
Although always aware of MND, I became more intensely aware 2 years ago when my husband was diagnosed with MND. To be able to assist with support, education, research, and advocacy for people with MND and their families is an honour. I have experience of being on a non-for-profit board, and college boards, also reporting to a NFP board in 2 of my career positions, where I pride myself on the ability to communicate in a fully transparent way to the stake holders and serve them in an honest and professional manner.
I have always been aware and ensured I have practised in a voluntary and work environment that any group I’m managing or representing are involved in the discussions or decisions. My working career is extensive and varied - I started my career as a nurse and continued on a part time basis while raising 3 children. Then started my own business in the wool industry. After 10 years I sold the business and moved into the non-for-profit sector as a Development Manager at St Peters College, until moving to the Maritime Museum as the Commercial Manager. Since then, I have been NZ Manager for a variety of international brands like Swarovski, Guess, Monte Blanc and currently Calendar Club.
I have always been aware and ensured I have practised in a voluntary and work environment that any group I’m managing or representing are involved in the discussions or decisions. My working career is extensive and varied - I started my career as a nurse and continued on a part time basis while raising 3 children. Then started my own business in the wool industry. After 10 years I sold the business and moved into the non-for-profit sector as a Development Manager at St Peters College, until moving to the Maritime Museum as the Commercial Manager. Since then, I have been NZ Manager for a variety of international brands like Swarovski, Guess, Monte Blanc and currently Calendar Club.
Council Member
Mark Leggett
I started my working career in health as a Registered Nurse (and later Registered Midwife), training and living in Taranaki. I'm married (Marlene) and with two daughters (Abby and Victoria), and have been in Canterbury since the early '90s, with a break of eight years living in the South Wairarapa.
Since stepping out of clinical work in the late '80s, I've worked in a range of health management roles including senior management in home and community services, GM of Christchurch Hospital, international health service development in China and more recently overseeing the programme work of the South Island District Health Boards.
I have an abiding interest in the improvement of health services at all levels, covering acute and planned care, as well as supporting those with chronic and debilitating health issues. In other words, the system can always do better and the strongest voice should be always be from those in need.
I have some peripheral, but nonetheless impactful experience with a friend diagnosed with MND, albeit some time ago. My career has therefore exposed me to services at individual, local and sector wide levels, and my approach is always about the consideration of the person in the middle, the whole of system approach, and how to ensure that an equity focus underpins it all.
Since stepping out of clinical work in the late '80s, I've worked in a range of health management roles including senior management in home and community services, GM of Christchurch Hospital, international health service development in China and more recently overseeing the programme work of the South Island District Health Boards.
I have an abiding interest in the improvement of health services at all levels, covering acute and planned care, as well as supporting those with chronic and debilitating health issues. In other words, the system can always do better and the strongest voice should be always be from those in need.
I have some peripheral, but nonetheless impactful experience with a friend diagnosed with MND, albeit some time ago. My career has therefore exposed me to services at individual, local and sector wide levels, and my approach is always about the consideration of the person in the middle, the whole of system approach, and how to ensure that an equity focus underpins it all.
Council Member