Our people

Sir Collin Tukuitonga

Associate Dean Pacific

Sir Collin Tukuitonga is of Niuean descent and has served many Pacific communities in his distinguished health career. He most recently worked as Pacific Community Director-General for SPC from January 2014, based at the organisation’s headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia. SPC is the principal scientific and technical organisation in the Pacific region, owned and governed by its 26 country and territory members.

Sir Collin Tukuitonga’s previous roles include:

• Director of SPC’s Public Health Division
  
• Member of an Independent External Review of SPC in 2012
  
• Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Government’s Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
• Associate Professor of Public Health and Head of Pacific and International Health at the University of Auckland
• Director of Public Health, New Zealand Ministry of Health
• Head of Surveillance and Prevention of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases at the World Health Organization, Switzerland.

He has also served in various leadership and management roles, including:

• Fiji School of Medicine
  
• Auckland District Health Board (ADHB)
  
• Northern Regional Health Authority (Auckland)
  
• University of Auckland
  
• Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRCNZ)
  
• Former Board member of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation
  

He was a commissioner for the World Health Organization (WHO) global Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity from 2014 until its work concluded in early 2016.

Dr Roannie Ng Shiu

Senior Research Fellow

Dr Roannie is Samoan from Leone, Apia and Savaia, Lefaga. In 2021, Roannie joined the University of Auckland, where she helped to establish the University Research Centre for Pacific & Global Health as a Co-Director. She also is the Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) Senior Research Fellow with University of Auckland's Faculty of Medical Health and Sciences Office of the Associate Dean Pacific where she helps deliver robust high-quality Pacific Health equity research and helping develop efforts to increase the Pacific health workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand with the recruitment and retention of Pacific Health students. Dr Roannie is also the Principal Analyst for Malatest International, an organisation specialising in progressive evaluation and market research.

She has previously held research positions at the Australian National University, where she led Pacific capacity-building initiatives and was involved in large-scale Pacific development research projects.

Roannie has 15 years of research experience specialising in human geography, and Pacific health, education, and development.With a strong background in research design and conducting research projects of all types, including qualitative, mixed-methods, longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. She has strong project management, stakeholder engagement and evidence-based policy development skills.She has vast research experience in the Pacific region, Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Her most recent research collaboration with the University of West Indies and the Lancet Countdown focused on the development of climate change and health policy for Small Island Developing States.

Dr John Sluyter

Senior Research Fellow

Dr Sluyter works as a Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Population Health, University of Auckland. Over the past 15 years, he’s done public health research to improve health outcomes in a range of research areas, especially cardiovascular disease risk prediction, health effects of vitamin D and obesity prevention. Pacific health is a key focus of the studies he’s been involved in – which have been based in schools, churches, primary care and research settings.

Dr Tamasin Taylor

Research Fellow

Dr Tamasin Ariana Taylor is a Pacific Health research fellow of New Zealand European and Samoan heritage. She graduated with a PhD in Health Psychology in 2015 and is now based at the University of Auckland in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology and in the School of Population Health. Her current work as a Health Research Council (HRC)-funded research fellow includes evaluating a co-design Pacific-led education and support program for Pacific patients undergoing weight loss surgery. She is also a research fellow on a second HRC-funded project investigating the knowledge, attitudes and practice towards Covid-19 among Pacific communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Seutaʻafili Dr Patrick Thomsen 

Senior Research Fellow

Born and raised in South Auckland, Seuta‘afili Dr Patrick Thomsen is of Samoan descent and a Senior Lecturer in Global Studies at the University of Auckland. He is also a well-known social commentator, researcher, freelance writer concerned with SOGI Rights across the Pacific and in New Zealand. ​

Patrick is currently the Principal Investigator for the Manalagi Project, New Zealand's first Pasifika Rainbow Health and Wellbeing Project to be funded by the Health Research Council of NZ, and is the Queer and LGBT+ Collection Editor for Lived Places Publishing.