For more than 20 years, I've been working at the intersection of behavioural science, human factors, and road safety, helping organisations understand why people do what they do, and what that means for strategy, policy and system design. These roles have spanned academia, government, and consulting. This has given me a uniquely holistic view of safety challenges.

Behavara takes its name from two ideas held together. Behaviour - the starting point for everything I do. And ara - the Māori word for pathway. Behaviour follows a path, shaped by the systems, conditions, and context people move through. Understanding that path, and what needs to change within it, is what I do.

The system shapes behaviour. I help you understand both

What I’m known for

Over my career I've helped shape and advise on complex, high-impact road safety initiatives across New Zealand and Australia - including driver licensing, young drivers, deterrence approaches, speed management, and regulatory strategy. I'm recognised for my ability to apply systems thinking to behaviour: moving beyond simplistic "behaviour change" narratives to address the structural, regulatory, and environmental drivers of harm.

Through my advisory work I support government agencies, industry, and decision-makers to design defensible policy, interpret behavioural and safety evidence, and make sound decisions in politically sensitive and high-scrutiny environments. I'm valued for helping organisations bridge the gap between evidence, policy intent, and real-world implementation.

I've advised Ministers and senior executives, contributed to national strategies and legislative reform, led and peer-reviewed applied research, and translated complex behavioural and regulatory evidence into clear, actionable guidance. My work spans Safe System strategy and delivery, regulatory good practice, policy change, and capability-building through training and thought leadership.

What distinguishes my work is the ability to bring clarity, judgement, and calm to complex systems - helping organisations understand not just what the evidence shows, but how to act on it, where to intervene, and how decisions will hold up across operational, political, and public contexts.

  • PhD, Psychology, CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology

  • M. Soc. Sc, Psychology, University of Waikato

  • B. Soc. Sc (Hons, First Class), University of Waikato

  • Certificate in Sustainability Business Management, University of Cambridge

What I bring

Behavioural science depth

A PhD in psychology and 20 years of applied research across academia, government, and consulting. I understand what drives human behaviour in complex systems, and how to design interventions that work within them - not by treating behaviour as an isolated variable, but by looking at how individual decisions, system conditions, and institutional context interact to produce outcomes. Understanding that full picture, and what it means for intervention design and targeting, is central to my work.

Systems thinking

Safety outcomes emerge through interactions between road users and the wider system around them - regulatory and policy settings, licensing and enforcement, vehicles and technology, the road environment, and the social conditions that shape what people can realistically do. Responsibility for safety needs to be distributed across that system, not placed predominantly on individual road users. And equity is central to that: people's capacity to comply with, access, or benefit from safety interventions can be shaped by income, geography, culture, and institutional trust. These aren't background factors - they're part of the safety problem itself. Finding where the real leverage sits in the system, and making sure the response is equitable, is the work I care most about.

Road safety expertise

Specialist knowledge across driver licensing, training and education, penalties and alternative pathways, enforcement, speed management, and the Safe System approach - as well as the high-risk behaviours including drink and drug driving, speeding, distraction, and fatigue. Developed across national strategy, Austroads guidance, and frontline advisory work over more than two decades, I understand how these levers interact, and how to design responses that are coherent across the system.

Research and evidence

A strong track record of rigorous applied research, published in peer-reviewed journals, delivered for Austroads and national and local government across New Zealand and Australia, and presented at national and international conferences. I know how to find, interrogate, and translate evidence into practical guidance that holds up across operational, political, and public contexts. I’ve delivered research projects across all areas of road safety, and in the work health and safety domain.

My peer-reviewed work has appeared in journals including Accident Analysis and Prevention, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, Applied Ergonomics, Vulnerable Groups and Inclusion, and International Journal of Vehicle Design. I have presented at conferences including:

  • International Congress of Applied Psychology (Montreal, 2018; Paris, 2014)

  • Safety 2016 Conference (Tampere, Finland, 2016)

  • International Conference on Positive Psychology and Wellbeing (London, 2018)

  • XXI World Congress on Safety and Health at Work (Singapore, 2017)

  • Australasian Road Safety Conference (Perth, 2025; Gold Coast, 2015; Perth, 2011)

  • International Occupational Safety in Transport Conference (Gold Coast, 2012)

  • Driving Change Network Conference (Wellington, 2025)

  • New Zealand Institute of Driver Educators (Auckland, 2026)

  • ACRS NZ Road Safety Forum (Auckland, 2024)

Regulatory science and good practice

Regulation is a powerful lever for shaping behaviour - and one of the most frequently misunderstood. Whether regulation achieves its intended outcomes depends not just on what the rules say, but on whether they are designed with an accurate understanding of how people actually respond to them.

My PhD investigated exactly this: how responsive and risk-based regulatory approaches, combined with principles from positive psychology, can be used alongside traditional deterrence to encourage voluntary compliance. Rather than asking only "what stops people from breaking the rules?", I was interested in a more fundamental question: what conditions help people want to do the right thing? That research produced ten recommendations for government on how non-punitive, behaviour-informed tools can be used effectively as part of a proportionate regulatory strategy.

I've since applied that expertise in practice through lead input into the NZTA Regulatory Strategy Tū ake, tū māia - shaping how one of New Zealand's largest transport regulators thinks about the relationship between regulatory tools, behaviour, and what it means to be firm and fair.

Like too many people, I've experienced the grief of losing people I cared about to road trauma. That first loss, at 16, was profound. It rippled through my school community, our families, and stayed with all of us.

That experience shaped everything. I dreamed about becoming a journalist, but chose to study cognitive psychology, was fortunate to have mentors with a deep commitment to applied road safety, and found a path that felt both meaningful and urgent. My Masters research on novice drivers and hazard perception skills was the beginning of a career I've never once questioned. My love of writing found its place.

Road trauma is preventable. That's what drives me. Every death and serious injury on our roads represents not just a statistic but a community forever changed - families, friends, colleagues, schoolmates.

But road safety is also about more than safety alone. Well-designed interventions create environmental and social benefits too. And understanding the underlying reasons for behaviour and harm - rather than simply responding to its symptoms is essential if we want solutions that are equitable and lasting. That's why systems thinking is at the heart of everything I do.

Why this work matters to me

Recognition

Austroads Achievement Award for Road Safety Leadership, 2025

New Zealand Transport Agency CEO Recognition Award, 2020

New Zealand Transport Agency General Manager Regulatory Services Letter of Recognition, 2020