Tasileta Teevale

Tasileta "Leta" Teevale (22 March 1973 – 21 April 2023) was a Samoan New Zealand academic, and was the inaugural director of the Pacific Development Office at the University of Otago. In 2021, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Pacific education and public health research.

Early life and education Teevale was born in Apia, Samoa, to Reverend Fuifui Teevale and Roberta Leisam-Teevale, and was the second of four children. When Teevale was eight years old, her father earned a scholarship to study at the University of Otago and the family moved to Dunedin in New Zealand. Teevale first attended Opoho School, where she learned English, and later went to Brockville Primary School, Kenmure Intermediate and Kaikorai Valley College. She then undertook a Master of Business Studies in Sports Management at Massey University, and worked for the Tertiary Education Commission first as a regional advisor and then as a national advisor in the Research Evaluation Unit. Teevale completed a PhD titled Obesity in Pacific adolescents: a socio-cultural study in Auckland, New Zealand at the University of Auckland in 2009, followed by postdoctoral research in Auckland's School of Population Health. Teevale then joined the faculty of the University of Otago, being appointed as the first Director of the Pacific Development Office in 2013.

Teevale's research covered physical education, health, youth and topics such as investigating the barriers to Pacific educational achievement at university.

In 2022, Teevale was diagnosed with cancer, and she died in Dunedin on 21 April 2023.

Honours and awards In the 2021 New Years Honours Teevale was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Pacific education and public health research.

Selected works