MANDY WHYTE

Mandy Whyte is a New Zealander who has worked for 14 years in economic and ​community development programs in New Zealand and for 20 years managing aid and development programmes in Indonesia, Timor Leste and the Pacific islands, principally for the governments of New Zealand and Australia. She has a degree in Social Work and a Masters of Philosophy, both from Massey University.

She has a long-term interest in the addiction field and, for a period, facilitated a prison drug awareness program. She is an advocate for change in the systems and paradigms that underpin the current management and treatment of severe drug addicts. 

She was brought up in Taranaki and her New Zealand base is on the Kapiti Coast. She is married to Opan and has one son.