Advocacy and Education Committee

The Advocacy and Education Committee provides focus and feedback on the A and R News and the Asthma Foundation's training resources including the Respiratory Educators Conference (formerly CREW), the Asthma Fundamentals training programme and patient education tools.

The committee meets three times a year, and is made up of people from a number of  professional disciplines and organisations throughout New Zealand.

Meet our Advocacy and Education Committee

Ruth Gardener, Chairperson

Ruth is a Registered Nurse working in the sleep apnoea arena. Prior to this she worked as a respiratory nurse at Dunedin Hospital and in a general practice.

She is committed to advocating for people with respiratory disease to ensure they have access to education and services to help them manage their disease. To assist this process, Ruth believes primary, secondary and tertiary care providers need to work closely together to effectively use, strengthen and develop services for people with respiratory disease. She sees the Asthma Foundation as ideally placed to provide advocacy and leadership to everyone involved in respiratory health.

Ruth is also a member of the Asthma Foundation's Board, Chairperson of the Otago Asthma Society and a member of the Respiratory Nurses' Section of the New Zealand Nurses' Organisation. In her spare time she is a frustrated small farmer.

Ailsa Cornell

Ailsa represents the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists (NZSP) on the Committee, having been  the NZSP Communications Officer since 2000. NZSP is keen to help the Asthma Foundation with its work because physiotherapists play a big role in helping people with respiratory conditions to live full and independent lives. Originally a secondary school teacher, from1988 Ailsa has worked in not-for-profit organisations, mostly in the health sector. She really enjoys the co-operation and goodwill of the Advocacy and Education Committee.

Carol Fitzgerald

Carol is currently employed as a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in respiratory within the Otago District Health Board based at Dunedin Hospital. Originally from a paediatric nursing background, Carol has continued to link this experience in her work with children with asthma and respiratory disease. Over the years, her scope of practice has grown to include work with adults with Cystic Fibrosis and COPD.

Carol has had a long association with the Otago Asthma Society, both as a committee member and in a professional role. She has also enjoyed the opportunity to provide input and advice as a member of the Advocacy and Education Committee of the Asthma Foundation. Previously she was a committee member of the Respiratory Nurses' Section of the New Zealand Nurses' Organization.

In her spare time, Carol enjoys the challenges of raising two teenagers.

Barb Scott

Barbara Scott is a program manager working for WIPA, the Wellington Independent Practice Association. She comes from a respiratory background. Having completed a BSc in Zoology, Barbara trained as a Cardio-Pulmonary Technologist, gaining a NZ Certificate in Science (Cardiopulmonary Physiology), and has been working in the field for more years than she cares to remember! 

Barbara’s role at WIPA is to act as a primary health respiratory resource, and to manage a COPD program which seeks to:

-  Identify COPD early in its development using spirometry in general practice

-  Offer smoking cessation by trained providers in general practice

-  Provide some assistance for people to access their doctor early in an exacerbation of their COPD and hopefully prevent or lessen hospital admissions.

She works with nurses and doctors in general practice to facilitate these, teaching Spirometry, Quality Control and Assurance, Asthma and COPD management. She also sometimes works directly with clients to test them with spirometry, provide asthma education or smoking cessation advice and support.

She is joint manager of the Porirua Asthma Education Service, a local Porirua service for education for people with asthma and their whanau. It is particularly targeted at Maori, Pacific Island, low income and new immigrant people to try and overcome the high morbidity and admission rates in the area.

Barbara is also an Asthma Fundamentals trainer. She believes that your asthma should not stop you from living a good and active life, and that it is possible in most cases to manage it so it does not have an impact on your life or your long term respiratory well-being.

Wendy McNaughton

Wendy qualified as a Registered Nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, London, in 1981. In 1990 she became a practice nurse and then gained a Specialist Practice Nurse Certificate. She managed nurse-led respiratory clinics for 11 years before moving to Auckland in 2001. There she joined a medical centre as a special practice nurse in 2002 and still manages a nurse-led respiratory and health promotion clinic one afternoon a week.


That same year she joined Harbour Health (a PHO) and manages the respiratory programme as well as facilitating educational programmes for GP Practice Teams in the North Shore and Urban Rodney area. Over 200 nurses have completed the NZNO-accredited Levels 7 and Asthma Fundamentals Course in asthma management, which has resulted in the development of many nurse-led clinics across the district. The results have been rewarding with excellent outcomes for patient health and quality of life.

Wendy is a PDRP assessor for Harbour Health Practice Nurses and is passionate about supporting nurses to achieve the best outcomes for patients with respiratory conditions. In 2008, she co-developed GASP,a web-based asthma assessment and decision support tool, which enables health professionals to follow the NZ Guidelines when assessing and managing patients with asthma.

Heather Baylis

Heather is a Registered Nurse working for Asthma Hawke’s Bay as their clinical nurse manager and respiratory educator. She has a passion for supporting people with respiratory conditions through advocacy and education.

Heather is committed to improving the quality of life and reducing unnecessary hospital admissions for respiratory patients through education and supporting improved self management of their condition.

Her working experience has been in adult medical and surgical, paediatrics and until recently practice nursing, which included running nurse-led respiratory clinics.

She is also a member of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) respiratory nurses section. In her spare time she enjoys dancing, fishing, water sports and the delicious product of Hawke’s Bay wine country!