A Samoan academic has become the first Pacific woman to be appointed in a professorial role at New Zealand's Otago University.
Faumuina Professor Fa'afetai is the recipient of a medal for services to Pacific health and tertiary education in NZ. Photo: Otago University
Faumuina Dr Fa'afetai Sopoaga is also the first Pacific female medical doctor to be appointed as a professor in both Australia and New Zealand.
Faumuina is a public and primary health care physician.
She is also undertaking PhD research on Pacific student health and wellbeing, while other research interests include mental health, and Pacific workforce capacity building.
Hailing from Fagaloa in Samoa where her chiefly title is from, Faumuina was the New Zealand prime minister's supreme award recipient in 2018 for tertiary teaching excellence and has been a New Zealand health advisor to Samoa.
Faumuina is embedded with a strong fa'a Samoa cultural sense of tautua, or service, and is an advocate for indigenous rights.
She is now a Professor at Otago University's Dunedin Health Sciences division.