Post Graduate Students' Association - PGSA

Benefits of becoming a Waikato PGSA member:

• Make contact with other postgraduate students
• Support of the executive as your voice on campus
• Form multi-disciplinary links in the university
• Keep informed of relevant issues to postgraduate students
• Free membership with the Waikato Student's Union (WSU). (Note: if you do not wish to be enrolled as a WSU member, please let us know in the comments section below)

Executive

Meet the members of our executive

Gina Millar - President

School of Management and Marketing

Gina is a doctoral candidate from the School of Management and Marketing. She is examining how design elements in digital environments relate to user cognition, focusing on purchase intention in the context of online games. Her research spans across management systems, human-computer interaction, games studies, and psychology disciplines. She is passionate about establishing connections across disciplinary boundaries with peers from different backgrounds. She has a strong appreciation for a good sense of humour! Before all her free time was absorbed by PhD research, her hobbies included yoga, playing games, tinkering with computers, and drawing.

Zac Isaac - Vice President & Treasurer

School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences

Zac is a third-year Ph.D. student hailing from sunny Ōpōtiki in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, and he is currently completing his study under Rorohiko Me Ngā Pūtaiao Pāngarau - the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences. His current research interests are in the field of computational biomedical optics, while his previous research focused on computational astrophysics. Outside of his studies, Zac is a keen fan of football and rugby. He also enjoys tutoring students and assisting with running several University clubs and associations.

Nadeeja Dodamgoda - Secretary

Waikato Management School

Nadeeja is a Ph.D. student in the Waikato Management School, and her research focuses on strategic management and leadership. In particular, the aim of her study is to develop a measure for ethical leadership, specifically applicable to the Asian Region. She hails from Sri Lanka and has a background in business statistics and research methodology.

Sheila Busteed - Events Manager

School of Education

Sheila is a PhD student in the Division of Education. Her research focuses on the pedagogical role of blended learning in the development of engineering students' critical reading skills. She spent the last few years as a University of Waikato faculty member, teaching English for Specific Academic Purposes to engineering students in China as part of a transnational programme. Her other research interests include the development of academic, professional, and creative writing skills; EAP/ESP pedagogies; curriculum development; and autoethnographic inquiry within the field of education, among others. Hailing from Canada, Sheila also lived in South Korea, Morocco, Spain, and China before calling New Zealand home. She had a journalism career before switching to the teaching profession in 2013. She's also a published novelist, poet, lyricist and essayist. In her free time, Sheila enjoys travelling, photography, cooking, and music.

Executive Members

Thanuksha Abeywardana - Executive Member

Waikato Management School

Thanuksha is a strategic management doctoral student from Waikato Management School. She is from Sri Lanka. Her research is based on three disciplines: spirituality, imprinting and entrepreneurship. She admires nature, music and silence.

Jayani Wijesinghe - Executive Member

School of Accounting, Finance and Economics

Jayani Wijesinghe is a third year PhD student in School of Accounting, Finance and Economics. She is broadly interested in the demographic, health, and labour economics. Her approach to work is nature and her skills are warm and friendly. She doesn’t believe in the word impossible and enjoy relating with people from all social and ethnic backgrounds. In her free Time, Jayani likes to travel, and spend her time volunteering.