Sally Duckworth

Sally co-founded Litmus in 2001, following a background in research and evaluation in the New Zealand public sector, and senior research consultancy roles in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Her areas of expertise include leading qualitative research on complex and sensitive issues, branding and communications, social marketing, and health promotion research.

Sally has proven expertise engaging stakeholders and communities in meaningful and sustainable dialogue to inform government strategies and policies. She has particular expertise in planning and facilitating public forums.

Sally has undertaken considerable cross-departmental research within the public sector targeting hard-to-reach audiences, and has evaluated several government strategies and policies.

Sally has a masters degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Auckland.

Liz Smith

Liz co-founded Litmus in 2001. For the last 15 years, Liz has undertaken social research and evaluation in New Zealand. Through her work, she has contributed to programmes and policies that have sought to enhance the lives of New Zealanders.

Liz specialises in planning and conducting central and local government evaluations, including synthesising multiple information streams to meet evaluation objectives. Liz is effective at working with planners, funders and communities to surface and agree programme logic and associated indicators.

Liz has also undertaken a number of business consultancy roles focusing on e-channel, workforce, system and infrastructural development to enhance service delivery and organisational efficiency.

Liz is adept at engaging senior audiences in the development of government policies and programmes, and is a recognised commentator on the relationship between ethics and evaluation, having facilitated workshops and presented internationally on
this topic.

Liz has a first-class honours degree in Sociology and Education Studies from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Margot Szamier

Margot has 15 years of experience catalysing change through her work with community, national and multilateral agencies, and has developed strategic alliances across sectors. She has lived and worked in five different countries, with diverse cultural environments, and is passionate about understanding the issues faced by people who live and work within a community.

With an interest in strengthening civil society. Margot has developed research tools designed to explore community problems and needs, monitored and evaluated the process and impact of development interventions and researched and evaluated development programmes.

She has extensive experience in participatory methodologies, engagement initiatives, organisational capacity development and management training, intergroup dialogue, experiential learning models, and incorporating cognitive, affective and behavioural competencies in training and group facilitation, and needs assessments and problem definition.

Kiri has joined the Litmus team after seven years working in social research and evaluation at the Health Sponsorship Council.

Kiri has a strong interest in social marketing - the use of commercial marketing tools and approaches to achieve positive social change. She has considerable experience in social marketing in the public health arena, including involvement in the Smokefree Homes and Cars, SunSmart and Feeding our Futures programmes.

A key area of expertise for Kiri is the development of intervention logics and, in particular, supporting practitioners to develop robust and evidence-informed programme plans. Kiri’s extensive experience in scoping, commissioning and managing a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research projects gives her particular insight into public sector research needs and sensitivities.

Kiri has presented extensively at a variety of forums, ranging from New Zealand and overseas conferences to community meetings.

Kiri has a first class Master of Science in Geography from the University of Auckland.

Susanna Kelly

Susanna joined the Litmus team after working as a senior researcher and development advisor for the Learning and Skills Network (United Kingdom), where she was responsible for delivering research, evaluation and professional development programmes. 

Susanna is a social anthropologist by training and has over ten years experience in conducting policy, academic and action research in the UK and the Pacific region (Vanuatu, Fiji, and New Zealand).

Key areas of expertise for Susanna include qualitative research design and methods, ethnographic research and the monitoring and evaluation of programme impact. Susanna also has experience of designing and delivering training in research methods. Susanna has a strong interest in participatory methodologies and evaluating development interventions in the Pacific. Susanna is fluent in Bislama (Vanuatu) and Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) and familiar with Nakanamanga (central Vanuatu).

Susanna has a PhD (gender, kastom and participation in traditional and cash economies in Vanuatu) from University College London and an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.

Michele Grigg

Michele is an experienced researcher and research manager, with 17 years experience in public health research and evaluation, campaign research, and outcomes analysis. Before Litmus her core area of expertise was tobacco control research. Michele has strong skills in both quantitative and qualitative research techniques and has presented her work extensively at national and international conferences, including as an invited speaker. She is passionate about undertaking practical research and evaluation for service and programme development.

Michele joined Litmus after seven years as The Quit Group Research Manager, during which time she developed an internal client surveying unit, led the development of the innovative texting programme, Txt2Quit, and the re-development of the Quitline service following initial evaluations. She oversaw research for the development of the world-leading Video Diaries smoking cessation media campaign.

Michele is a co-investigator on three HRC-funded randomised controlled trials (with the University of Auckland).

Her time at The Quit Group followed a number of years working in health and Māori development in the public sector. Here she led the development and publication of national outcome monitoring reports and contributed to development of the first national programme of population health surveys.

Michele has a Masters of Social Science (Demography and Geography) from the University of Waikato and a Certificate in Public Health from the University of Otago.

Annette Chapman

Annette manages the Litmus Office and finances. She ensures the smooth running of the Litmus Offices, manages day-to-day relationships with suppliers, and manages the accounts for the company. She is also the Acid Test Panel Manager.

She is a highly efficient, and responsive and an excellent problem solver.

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