The Honourable Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban, of Lower Hutt, DNZM, for services to education and the Pacific community
The Honourable Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban was appointed Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) of Victoria University of Wellington in 2010 and has since provided strategic advice, direction and support for Pacific students and staff, increasing enrolments and raising Pacific achievement.
Dame Winnie has been Patron of the Wainuiomata Pasifika Education Success Initiative since 2013, and Patron of the Cancer Society Relay for Life since 2008. She is Patron for the Wellington Pasifika Business Network and Wellington Rugby League. She has been a member of Creative New Zealand Arts Council since 2014 and was Chair of the Pacific Arts Committee from 2013 to 2014. Since 2017 she has been a member of the Australasian Association for Institutional Research, the New Zealand Institute of Directors, the Commissioner of Police’s National Pacific Advisory Forum, and an Auditor for the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities. She has been a member of the National University of Samoa Council since 2012 and the Institute of Judicial Studies Board since 2011. Dame Winnie is currently involved in a project in partnership with Wellington City Council and Victoria University of Wellington to construct a multipurpose fale malae in the Wellington region.