Our Trustees

Ruth Busch

Ruth was born in 1944 in the Bronx and migrated to New Zealand in 1982 from Vancouver British Columbia. She trained as lawyer with a specialty in human rights law. She taught the first foundation law course at the University of Waikato in 1988 and continued to teach at the Law School for the next twenty-six years. She co-authored the report which formed the basis for the Domestic Violence Act 1995 and her work on the Bristol Ministerial Inquiry led the enactment of the violence provisions in the Care of Children's Act.

Ruth was part of the group whose work led to the establishment of the Hamilton Abuse Intervention Project in 1990, a domestic violence NGO whose approach to dealing with violence served as the pilot project for New Zealand. In 2007, she co-authored a second report on domestic violence, Living at the Cutting Edge. Ruth has published widely on domestic violence issues and has keynoted at a myriad of domestic and international conferences for the past three decades.

Paulien Fa’atafa

Paulien works at Te Whatu Ora, Health Promotion in maternal mental health. She is interested in how whānau and community led wellbeing can bring about systems change. Previously Paulien has worked in a variety of community organisations in mental health and community health.

Using a public health and equity lens to ensure that people can live well is Paulien’s passion. She is a Backbone trustee because she believes that the voices of people with lived experience are crucial for influencing change. 

Nina Heriman

Nina's professional experience is in policy advice, and data and analytics, including working on the Gender Equal project. She strongly believes that data and evidence need to be placed in context for effective decision-making. Nina is passionate about the work of the Backbone Collective because it centre's women's voices to provide that context.

Paulette Benton-Greig

Paulette Benton-Greig is a Senior Lecturer in Law at AUT where she teaches and researches in justice, gender, sexuality and law issues, especially in the area of gendered violence. She is currently researching aspects of gendered harm and digital culture, technology mediated intimacies and justice responses to sexual offending. Prior to being an academic, Paulette worked in services supporting survivors of gendered violence. Paulette is a part of the Backbone Collective because she believes that effective systems improvement and justice innovation is supported by a multiplicity and diversity of perspectives.    

Sophie Barnett

Sophie has a background in psychology and criminology and currently works in the social services sector in Tamaki Makaurau. Sophie seeks to combine her experience in research and her work with women and children in the community to advocate for system change. Sophie is passionate about centering the voices of those with lived experience to influence this change.