Our people
Dr Kay Saville-Smith

A sociologist, Kay has built up over twenty years of solid expertise in community and social policy research. Her research areas include applied social research and evaluation in housing, public policy and community development. Kay established CRESA in 1994 along with co-director Julie Warren who retired from the company in 2010.
Prior to establishing CRESA Kay was an academic, policy manager and ministerial adviser. She has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research design, evaluation, and policy analysis. Her research includes: housing markets, housing demand; retirement villages; accessible housing; sustainable housing; the residential building industry; neighbourhood built environments; benefit and funding policy for health, welfare, housing, disability and social services; and mental health services. In the past she was a member of the Healthy Housing Programme (Otago University), HEEP (BRANZ) and led the Sustainable Neighbourhoods Stream for the BEACON Consortium as well as contributed to the NowHome and retrofit evaluations. Kay is committed to and a successful provider of public good research. She has led a number of public good science funded programmes, including: Life When Renting: Enabling Older People's Independence in the Tenure Revolution; Finding the Best Fit: Housing, Downsizing, and Older People in a Changing Society; Community Resilience and Good Ageing: Doing Better in Bad Times; Ageing in Place: repairs and maintenance of older people's housing; and BBHTC SRA1: Improving the Architecture of Decisions Making.
In 2018 Kay was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for Services to Older People's Research and Housing Research. She is currently appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Group on Housing and Urban Development and is a trustee for the Marlborough Sustainable Housing Trust. Previously she has been a council member for the Lifetime Design Foundation Council, a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Warm Homes and a member of the Office for Senior Citizens' Independent Advisory Group Reviewing the Positive Ageing Strategy.
Ruth Fraser

Nina Saville-Smith

Dr Elsie Ho
