Editor-in-Chief:

Sir Collin Tukuitonga 

Journal Production Manager: 

Dr Vilingatoni Hasiata is a house officer at Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau. Email:  submissions@pacifichealthdialog.co.nz or vili@pmagroup.co.nz

Board of Editors:

Faumuina Fa’afetai Sopoaga
Professor and Associate Dean (Pacific)
Division of Health Sciences
University of Otago
(MBChB, FNZCPHM, FRNZCGP, MPH, DPH)

Faumuina Associate Professor Fa’afetai Sopoaga is the Associate Dean (Pacific) in the Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago, New Zealand. Faumuina is a high chief title bestowed by her family from Fagaloa, Samoa in recognition of her service, leadership roles and responsibilities.
She completed early education and high school in Samoa, and later in medicine graduating from the University of Otago. She trained in Public Health and General Practice at the NZ College of Public Medicine and the Royal NZ College of General Practice respectively.
She led the development of Pacific strategic engagements and responsiveness at the University for over 20 years. She was the first Pacific staff to be appointed to the senior role of Division, Associate Dean (Pacific) in 2009. This role is mandated to provide oversight for all Pacific activities within the Division that engages Pacific peoples in New Zealand and the Pacific region. She is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the University’s Pacific Strategic Framework in Health Sciences.
Head of the Va’a o Tautai, Pacific Health, Faumuina leads the Divisional Pacific Office, is the Director of the Pacific Islands Research and Student Support Unit (PIRSSU), and co-Director of the Centre for Pacific Health. The University celebrated the success of proportional representation of Pacific entries into Medicine for the first time in 2016, and increased Pacific entries into its health professional and biomedical programmes in recent years. Her research interests include Pacific workforce capacity building, Pacific students’ mental health and well-being, and Pacific health curriculum.

Dr El-Shadan Tautolo

Director of the Centre for Pacific Health at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He also heads the Pacific Islands Families (PIF) Study, which has tracked the health development of 1,400 Pacific children from birth to adolescence. All were born at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland in 2000. The study is currently in its 17 year phase.

Dr Jitoko Cama

Executive Board Member - PMA

Dr Jitoko Cama completed his undergraduate studies in 1996 for MBBS and postgraduate MMed – Surgery in 2003 at the University of the South Pacific School of Medicine in Suva, Fiji. He then worked as a Medical Officer and completed public health rotations before joining the surgical unit at CWMH, Fiji in 1999. In 2002, Jitoko was awarded the Rowan Nick’s Fellow Scholarship for attachment at Northshore & Starship Hospitals in Auckland, New Zealand. That paved the way for his further attachments and training in various Senior Paediatric Surgical Training Positions, at Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland and Christchurch Public Hospital from 2002 to 2005, then later at Monash Medical Centre Melbourne and Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne from 2006 to 2009.

He successfully completed FRACS-Paediatric Surgery training in Melbourne in 2008 before returning to Suva in 2009 and worked as a Senior Lecturer in Surgery at FSMed/Fiji National University and a Consultant General & Paediatric Surgeon at CWMH. In 2011, he took up his current position as a Specialist Paediatric Surgeon/Paediatric Urologist, the Department of Paediatric Surgery at Waikato Hospital. Jitoko is also an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Auckland University and a visiting Paediatric Surgeon at Whakatane and Tokoroa Hospital.
His special career interest is in minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic and thoracoscopic), paediatric urology and any neonatal surgery.

Jitoko’s other roles are the Pacific Island Programme (PIP) Paediatric Surgery Specialty Coordinator for the RACS, a team member (Volunteer) of the Pacific Island Programme/Royal Australasian College of Surgeons-Paediatric Surgery with visits to Fiji since 2004, and an Instructor for the EMST and CCRiSP course for the RACS training programme. He likes mountain hiking, sightseeing, and other outdoor activities. Jitoko is married to Dr Anaseini Tinai Cama with 2 children.

Dr Kiki Maoate ONZM, FRACS, President PMA

The scope of Kiki Maoate’s work and influence extends throughout New Zealand and the Pacific region.

A Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Kiki is one of New Zealand’s leading paediatric surgeons and paediatric urologists, based at Christchurch Hospital. He has helped to develop paediatric outreach clinical services in New Zealand and throughout the Pacific region. He is a pioneer of keyhole surgery for children and has a strong interest in research, having been a former council member on both the New Zealand and Pacific Health Research Councils.

Kiki plays a leading role in postgraduate surgical training and mentoring for students in the Pacific region as well as for Pacific students in New Zealand. Kiki is an advisor to Ministries and Governments in New Zealand and the Pacific and has served on numerous committees and boards.

In 2010 he was acknowledged by the Pacific Island Surgeons Association for his contribution to the development of surgery in the Pacific and again in 2015 by His Majesty King Tupou VI of Tonga for his tremendous spirit of service for the people of Tonga. In his far-reaching commitment to Pacific health, Kiki is continuing a legacy established by his father, Sir Terepai Maoate, a pioneer of health practice in the Pacific.

He is the President of the Pasifika Medical Association, Chair of the Pasifika Futures Board, a member and strong supporter of the Pacific Island Surgeons Association, and is the Chair of the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Ministerial Advisory Committee.

Dr Rosalina Risale Richards Hessell

Associate Dean (Pacific), Dunedin School of Medicine.

Senior Lecturer & Co-Director of the Centre for Pacific Health, Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago.

Dr Hessell’s academic background is in behavioural psychology and public health. As former Co-Director of the Cancer Society Social and Behavioural Research Unit, she has led a variety of research projects related to the modification of lifestyle behaviours (e.g. healthy nutrition, physical activity, SunSmart and smoke-free) to reduce the impact of cancer in NZ.

More recently, Dr Hessell has been focusing on Pacific health via supervision of Pacific student projects and contributions to the work of larger collaborative teams in issues related to sleep, obesity, mental health, dental health, big data and tobacco control. In 2017 she was successful in obtaining an HRC Pacific Project Grant to explore the potential role of sleep in supporting good health among Pacific families.

A/Prof Don Wilson