Faumuina Professor Fa'afetai Sopoaga, of Dunedin, CNZM for services to Pacific health and tertiary education
Faumuina Professor Fa’afetai Sopoaga was the inaugural Pacific Associate Dean, Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago. She led the development of the Division of Health Sciences’ first strategic plan and contributed to the University’s Pacific Strategic Plan. She advocated for additional senior Pacific leadership roles in Health Sciences. She led development of several evidence-based programmes and establishment of the Division of Health Sciences Pacific Reference and Strategic Groups. She supported developments for medical schools within the Fiji National University medical school programme and the National University of Samoa. As Director of Va’a o Tautai Centre for Pacific Health, she mobilised Samoa Doctors Worldwide volunteers to support relief efforts for Samoa’s measles epidemic. Professor Sopoaga was the first female medical doctor of Pacific descent in Australasia to become a Professor