Virginia Hope

Virginia Hope is a New Zealand public health specialist, researcher and public sector governance expert. In 2014 Hope was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to health.

Academic career

Hope completed a Diploma of Community Health at the University of Otago and a medical degree and Masters of Philosophy at the University of Auckland. Hope served in the Auckland Regional Public Health Service as the Medical Officer of Health (Environmental Health) for ten years, and then joined the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), a Crown Research Institute, in 2006. She is the Medical Director at ESR, and has also been Chair of the Hutt Valley District Health Board and the Capital and Coast District Health Board, and an elected member of the Auckland District Health Board.

Hope serves on the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice. She was appointed to the role in 2020. She is also on the board of water services regulator Taumata Arowai. In 2020 she was awarded the Science New Zealand Individual Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selected works