Faafetai Sopoaga

Faumuinā Faʻafetai Sopoaga is a Samoan-New Zealand academic specialising in Pacific health, Pacific workforce development, Pacific students, and Pacific communities. She is a professor at the Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Otago, Dunedin. When she was appointed, she became the first Pacific woman medical doctor to be appointed in a professorial role at any university in Australia or New Zealand, and the first Pacific woman to be appointed a professor at the University of Otago.

Biography Sopoaga is from Fagaloa in Samoa. She completed a PhD in 2021 with a thesis titled "Folauga" - Pacific health, well-being and success in higher education.

Sopoaga serves as Health Advisor for the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa and has assisted in the establishment of a medical school, based at the National University of Samoa.

Recognition In 2018, Sopoaga received a Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award from Ako Aotearoa for "sustained excellence in tertiary teaching and endorsement for excellence in supporting Pacific learners"; she also received the Prime Minister's Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

In the 2022 New Year Honours, Sopoaga was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Pacific health and tertiary education.