Heather Came

Heather Anne Came (also known as Heather Came-Friar) is a New Zealand activist, academic and anti-racism scholar, and is an adjunct professor at Victoria University of Wellington, and an anti-racism consultant. In 2023 Came was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori, education and health.

Early life and education Came is a seventh-generation Pākehā New Zealander. Came completed a Master of Political Science degree at the University of Canterbury, after which she became interested in public health. She earned a Certificate in Health Promotion from the University of Otago in Wellington, through distance learning. She then followed this with a PhD titled Institutional Racism and the Dynamics of Privilege in Public Health at the University of Waikato.

Career

Came joined the faculty of the Auckland University of Technology, rising to associate professor in 2022. In 2023 she was appointed as an adjunct professor in the Department of Public Health at Victoria University of Wellington.

Honours and awards In the New Years Honours of 2023 Came was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori, education and health.

In 2021 Came jointly won the Public Health Association's Kāhui Hauora Tūmatanui Public Health Champion Award.

Selected works