About Prof. Grant Schofield
Reimagining public health through prevention and human potential
Academic Pioneer & Health Disruptor
Grant Schofield is the Professor of Public Health at Auckland University of Technology, Director of the University’s Human Potential Centre, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, co-author of four best-selling books and Chief Science Officer for PREKURE.
Professor Grant’s career has focused on preventing the diseases of modern times, and seeing what it takes to help people live a long, healthy and happy life.
He lives and breathes the motto “be the best you can be”, and sees this as a game-changer for the health system, capable of transforming the current health (sickness) model, to one in which we aspire to be well. He is redefining public health as the science of human potential; the study of what it takes to have a great life.
Grant is well known for thinking outside the box and challenging conventional wisdom in nutrition and weight loss, as well as physical activity and exercise.
He brings his fluency across several scientific disciplines from human physiology, to psychology, to peak performance to his role at PREKURE, where he delivers world class training in lifestyle medicine.
The Why? Grant & Louise Schofield
I’ve spent my entire life working at the intersection of health, human potential and behaviour change, and I try to live it, not just talk about it. I eat low carb, do cold plunges at home, train well above the guidelines and at the moment I’m experimenting with OMAD (one meal a day) fasting.
I’m 56 now and was Professor of Public Health at AUT for many years, and Director of the Human Potential Centre. These days, I’m more focused on what I consider my real mission – training health coaches through PREKURE, the organisation Louise and I founded.
Louise and I live in Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore. We raised our three sons here and most of Louise’s family lives within a few streets. We’re close to the beach, can walk or bike everywhere and our home even burned down once and was rebuilt. It’s a good base.
How I Got Here
I was originally going to study PE in Otago, but my dad and grandfather talked me out of it. I lasted one week in engineering before switching to science, then did a master’s in psychology and went on to a PhD. My first academic job was in Queensland, where I spent 10 years in a psychology department before coming back to AUT when our kids were young.
When I returned, public health and physical activity weren’t really a discipline here yet, so I was able to establish that field and build what became the Human Potential Centre.
Louise and I met through triathlon. We both raced professionally and endurance sport has been a constant thread in my life. I’ve done Hawaii Ironman and I still coach a handful of young athletes. These days I run, swim in the ocean, surf-lifesave in summer and train when I can. I’m not the athlete I used to be, I ran 6km last week and 12km on Sunday, slowly, but I still walk the talk.
How We Live
Our boys have grown up around whatever we’re experimenting with fasting, cold exposure, sauna, nose breathing, low-carb eating. The “wellbeing deck” at home has become a bit of an ice bath and sauna hangout. Teenagers pretend not to listen, but they do. One of my sons taped his mouth at night to try nose breathing and it fixed some issues.
We mostly eat whole food and low carb. I still try to influence the boys, but teenagers do their thing. My extended family has unknowingly been the test group for half of our ideas over the years.
The Problem We’re Solving
I genuinely believe that although humans are living longer than ever, we’re also living with more disease and dysfunction than ever what healthcare calls morbidity. Healthspan matters more than lifespan. If you’re going to be alive, you might as well enjoy it.
Louise and I started PREKURE to do something about that. Our health system is set up to deal with symptoms in 15-minute blocks prescribe, refer, repeat. Meanwhile, around 90% of chronic disease and mental health issues are preventable or reversible.
The real leverage comes from behaviour change knowing how to change your own behaviour and helping others do the same. That’s why we train health coaches. Prevention is cure.
What’s Next
I feel strongly that your best work should always be ahead of you, whatever your age. That’s how I think about PREKURE it’s the most meaningful and scalable way I can help improve human healthspan.
And yes, I’ve decided to relive my glory athlete days and am training for the Ironman in March.
Book Grant to Speak
I speak at live events, on podcasts and to teams. If you want frictionless ideas and status quo thinking, I’m not the right fit. If you want honest insight, prevention-first thinking, and a speaker who lives what he teaches, book me in.
What I deliver
- Science that isn’t stuck in the 1990s
No reheated food pyramids to see here. I deal in metabolic health, nutrition and lifestyle medicine backed by current evidence, not dogma. If the science has moved on, so should we.
- Stories from the front line
I don’t sit in an ivory tower. I test ideas in the lab, in the community and in my own life. I share research, lived experiments and what actually works with real people and real systems.
- A shake-up, not a pep talk
I’m not here to motivate you for 20 minutes and disappear. I challenge assumptions, call out the nonsense, and push for change. Walk away with something to act on.
Speaking, Podcasts, Sessions to your Team
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