Meet the Team
The Hope Collective wouldn't exist without the people behind it. From our trustees to our Partners and Community, every person plays a part in supporting māmā and whānau across the Manawatū.
The Board
Paula Spargo
Paula is a Registered Nurse and Midwife, Coach, and Professional Supervisor with over 25 years of experience in clinical, leadership, quality improvement, and system design. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Counselling. Paula’s work has primarily focused on the first 2,000 days of life, with particular expertise in pregnancy and the early childhood period from birth to five years.
Katherine Gillespie
Katherine is a Registered Nurse (non-practising) and a certified Mental Health Coach, committed to mental fitness, connection, and belonging. She brings experience in group coaching, workshop facilitation, and programme delivery across community and industry settings. Katherine contributes a practical, people-centred perspective through her experience in governance, strategic oversight, and rural wellbeing.
Jessica Sandbrook
Jessica Sandbrook is a Registered Nurse with experience in child health, SUDI prevention, and quality improvement across the first 2,000 days of life. She was commissioned by Health NZ to author the Perinatal Mental Health Environmental Scan for the Central Region and currently works in a mental health clinical leadership role within a community NGO.
Robyn Ballard
Robyn Ballard is a Registered Nurse (non-practising) with wide-ranging experience across the health sector. She holds a Diploma in Management (Advanced) and brings extensive leadership and management experience, with expertise in governance, policy, and service on community trusts.
Advisors
Rupiana Carmichael
Te Ao Maori Advisor to the Board
Pastor Shirley Carmichael has served at New Life Church for 43 years, including 24 /25 years on staff. Married to Ted, she is a mother of three sons, with her eldest having passed away in 2023, and a proud grandmother of six mokopuna. She is passionate about serving God, caring for people, and equipping others to walk in their Kingdom purpose.
Ashleigh Seagar
Lived Experience Advisor to the Board
Ashleigh is a wife and māmā to two boys aged 5 and 18 months. Having walked her own journey in relation to perinatal mental health, the vision and mission of The Hope Collective has captured her heart and she feels so privileged to be a part of it! She holds a deep belief that there is hope and joy on the other side of perinatal distress and has learnt that healing happens in the context of community.
As well as being māmā to her two boys, Ashleigh is a social worker and over the past 10 years she has worked across the fields of child and family social work and mental health and addictions.
Heidi Hitchman
Treasurer
Heidi Hitchman serves as Treasurer for The Hope Collective. She is also the business owner of Summit Outsourcing, bringing strong financial expertise and a steady hand to the trust's kaupapa.
Our Team
Paula Spargo
Service Clinical Coordinator/Operations Lead
Katherine Gillespie
Group Coordinator/Lead Facilitator
Gabrielle Bundy Cooke
Fundraising & Events
Lauren Gillespie
Communications & Media
Amanda xxx
Group Support
Jeanette Townend
Administration Support
Grace Brown
Childcare Support
Lienke Murray
Childcare Support
Our Partners
Moderate-Severe Perinatal Service
Kate Steadman
Clinical Psychologist
Kate's work is based across Manawatū, Tararua, and online. She previously worked in addiction and community mental health services, and for the last five years has been self-employed in private practice specialising in rural mental health. She works with individuals, couples, and families facing depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, trauma, grief, isolation, stress and burnout, and holds a special place for māmā who may be isolated and struggling to find connection within themselves and their communities.
Lisa Gibson
Psychologist
Lisa is a registered psychologist based in Palmerston North, offering in-person and online sessions. Her work focuses on helping parents navigate anxiety, intrusive thoughts, self-criticism, parenting stress, relationship challenges, and the identity shifts of the perinatal period.
Her approach is warm and collaborative, grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), helping parents relate differently to their thoughts and emotions and move towards what matters most.
Rebecca Robinson
Counsellor
Rebecca supports individual and whānau wellbeing, drawing on over 20 years as a Public Health Nurse, alongside training as a Birthing From Within Mentor, Lactation Consultant, and a Master of Counselling. She specialises in counselling parents through pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period, including anxiety, depression, distress, PTSD, sensitive claims, birth trauma, and infant loss. Her work is collaborative, grounded in safety and trust, respect for cultural diversity, honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and acknowledging that every person's journey is unique.
Kathryn Wilson
Counsellor
Kathryn is based in rural Taranaki and offers online counselling support for The Hope Collective. She works alongside māmās, pāpā, parents and families navigating anxiety, depression, perinatal grief, loss, addiction, identity transitions, neurodiversity, changing family dynamics, isolation, and intergenerational trauma, as well as the challenges of being a māmā, parent or partner. Her practice draws on her background in Disability, Community Recovery and Community Health, alongside her own lived experience of neurodiversity and perinatal grief. Kathryn brings a warm, holistic, trauma-informed approach, valuing therapeutic relationships, creativity, and mindfulness, and holds deep respect for each family's unique perinatal story.
Katherine Gillespie
Mental Health Coach
Katherine is based in the beautiful Manawatū, working online and in person across Aotearoa. Wife, mum, and besotted nana of one, life has taught her that struggle and joy can live together.
She is a Certified Mental Health Coach, nurse, and wellbeing facilitator, walking alongside individuals, groups, and whānau to help people find their calm, build inner steadiness, and reconnect with what matters most.
Katherine facilitates the Whānau Support Programme, supporting partners as they walk alongside their loved one. She knows there is something powerful about being in a space with others who really "get it" where shared experience becomes shared strength.
Nichole Cobham
Women’s Health Physiotherapist
Nichole is a dedicated pelvic health physiotherapist who supports women through every stage of life, helping them manage a wide range of pelvic health concerns with confidence and compassion. Her areas of expertise include pregnancy and postpartum care, birth trauma and birth injuries, pelvic and sexual pain, pelvic organ prolapse, bladder and bowel dysfunction, and rehabilitation following gynaecological surgery.
Nichole is passionate about personalised, evidence-based care with an emphasis on holistic, collaborative treatment that empowers women to achieve the goals that matter most to them, working alongside her patients to develop individualised treatment plans for their long-term wellbeing.
Tania Paku
Maternity Registered Nurse (Premium Postnatal Care)
Tania is a Registered Nurse with over 25 years of postnatal care experience working with women and babies. She is a mother of two and a proud nan to six grandchildren, and brings a professional, supportive, caring and approachable manner.
Tania comes with many skills to support new parents and their babies in their own environment, with extensive educational and practice hours in breastfeeding, formula feeding, baby care, and educating parents and whānau about their newborn. She can support sleep needs or act as a support person during the day, helping guide families on their path to caring for their newborn.