Sunny Collings

Catherine Diane Collings, known as Sunny, is a New Zealand psychiatrist and health executive, and was a full professor at the University of Otago, specialising in suicide prevention. She was chief executive of the Health Research Council of New Zealand, before being appointed in 2025 to lead the Health Quality and Safety Commission.

Academic career

Collings completed a medical degree at the University of Otago, graduating in 1984. She worked as a general practitioner and completed psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital in London, where she studied bulimia nervosa with Professor Michael King. Collings is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. She is a board member of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. Collings was an expert adviser on an inquest into the deaths of four teenage girls in Flaxmere.

Collings was Dean and Head of Campus at the University of Otago, Wellington for nine years. In July 2025 she was appointed CEO of Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission.

Selected works