Active Southland’s Healthy Families Invercargill team is excited to welcome Nicola Stout as the team’s new Lead Systems Innovator.

Nicola is a registered nurse and previously worked for WellSouth for 11 years, with the last five as the co-ordinator of the HPV in Schools Vaccination Programme for Southland. Other parts of her role included education for those with type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes, and helping with the Covid response in our area. 

The Lead Systems Innovator role will be a change of direction for Nicola, from dealing with people individually, to looking at ways we can impact across the community.

Originally from Gore, she has lived in Auckland and Tauranga, before settling back down south in Invercargill in 2011. Nicola is actively involved in the local disc golf scene, finding it a great way of getting out with her family and three grown children. You will often find her down at Queens Park having a round. “I am passionate about this sport and how it brings people together, gets them active and is so beneficial for mental wellbeing. I particularly love to see so many different people out using our amazing Queens Park, enjoying active recreation, and I’m trying to encourage more women into the sport.”

Nicola also enjoys walking (or sometimes slogging) with friends and family, swimming, and reading.

With Nicola’s work in health and seeing the negative impact of long-term conditions on people's lives, she is keen to see Healthy Families Invercargill grow its contribution to better health in Invercargill and Southland. “Healthy Families is in a privileged position where it can coordinate different leadership and community groups to collaborate and use existing alignments, then offer innovative health solutions.”

She believes the work that Healthy Families Invercargill does in the community for better health is so important at a time when the incidence of long-term conditions is increasing. “I would like to see Healthy Families use its wide scope to have real impact on people’s health. I am looking forward to working alongside our passionate team of Systems Innovators to help see change in our community.”

Article added: Thursday 12 September 2024