Andrea has held a number of senior management positions during her career in the public sector. She joined ERMA New Zealand (now part of the Environmental Protection Authority, EPA) in 1998 to lead the project to transfer the regulation of chemicals from old legislation to the framework of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. After successful completion of the transfer project, Andrea was appointed General Manager of the Hazardous Substances Group, with responsibility for implementation of hazardous substances legislation. This included the assessment of new and existing chemicals and activities supporting hazardous substance compliance and enforcement.

With the reorganisation of the EPA in May 2012, Andrea was appointed General Manager of the EPA’s Compliance Group, managing compliance and enforcement activities across all of the EPA’s functions –  hazardous substances, new organisms, the import and export of hazardous waste and ozone-depleting substances and the monitoring, enforcement and compliance of activities taking place within New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

Andrea joined the Ministry of Health in 2018 to manage the Regulatory Practice and Analysis team within Medsafe, which has responsibility for leading the implementation of new regulatory schemes. The focus to date has been on the development of new regulations to enable the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme and the establishment of the Medicinal Cannabis Agency, which will become operational on 1 April 2020.