Tineke Jennings
Tineke Jennings is the WellKiwis Associate Clinical Nurse Leader. She leads a team of nurses, phlebotomists and Technical Officers who bring the study to life. The team are responsible for all the clinical activities for the WellKiwis studies, this includes triaging survey responses, contacting participants who are symptomatic (of influenza like illness), making up and arranging delivery of self-swabbing kits, delivering positive flu/covid results and arranging required blood samples for the study.
The WellKiwis studies are three separate cohorts, the adult cohort (previously known as SHIVERS), the WellKiwi infant cohort (enrolled during pregnancy and followed for seven years) and the WellKiwis household study (a group of households from the Wellington region who are followed for 7 years) this includes around 3169 participants over the region.
Tineke started at ESR in March 2020 during the lockdown, and due to the nature of our work, at times the team was quite isolated, so a real highlight for her was when the alert levels dropped, and she could be more interactive with the wider team. The role has changed significantly during that time as the team has grown significantly from a small seasonal team of four with now eight to ten staff working in fixed term contracts year-round.
Outside of work, Tineke enjoys working out at the gym and taking park in a weekly park run. She is a musician and sings and plays the flute in a band called NRJ. She also spends time with her husband, five children, and Chinese Sharpei dog.