Dr Michelle Walker

Dr Michelle Walker is thrilled to have become the 16th Girdlers’ Health Research Council of New Zealand Research Fellow (2026–28), joining a long line of distinguished researchers. She is honoured to be hosted by Green Templeton College and is based at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (NDPCHS), University of Oxford within the Medical Sociology and Health Experiences Research Group (HERG). Professors Lisa Hinton and Sue Ziebland will support Michelle extend her research in maternal mental health care to understand how the UK and New Zealand can improve equity and care for new mothers.

Michelle has interdisciplinary experience and skills across health research, history, preventive and social medicine, music, business, and governance. She completed a doctorate at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka | University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand with the bigger question of ‘how do we improve maternal health care, and specifically mental health, for new mothers and their families?’ Her PhD (2024) explored historic experiences of postpartum psychiatric illness and the reasons why the topic has been invisible in personal, intergenerational, national, and medical narratives.

This post-doctoral fellowship presents Michelle with the opportunity to extend her research skills into medical sociology and applied science. Over the coming years, you will find Michelle between the NDPCHS building, the college, and Jericho. She has two primary school-aged daughters and a lovely husband of 17 years. She is also an avid singer and looks forward to participating in all that Green Templeton and the university has to offer. She is grateful to the Girdlers Livery Company, the Health Research Council of New Zealand and to the college for this opportunity.

‘Naku te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi | With your basket and my basket, the people will live.’ This Māori whakatauki expresses gratitude for the value of cooperation, highlighting that collective effort and sharing resources benefit everyone in the community. As a researcher exploring deeply personal experiences of motherhood and maternal wellbeing, Michelle is cognisant that such significant work cannot be done alone, and she looks forward to learning from and working alongside her colleagues and the women and families who participate in the research.