Event Title: Professor Sir Collin Tukuitonga’s Inaugural Lecture
Venue: Fale Pasifika, University of Auckland
Date: June 5th 2025, 5.30pm
Livestream Credits: Lopstream Livestream

Professor Sir Collin Tukuitonga’s Inaugural Lecture In his inaugural lecture, Collin will reflect on four decades of medicine, public health, public policy and leadership. He left his island home aged 15 years to study in Fiji before returning home to work.

He spent 15 years in Primary Health Care in his homeland and General Practice in Auckland before embarking on a career in Public Health Medicine. Concerns about chronic inequities in health and access to health care for indigenous Maori and Pacific people in Aotearoa became the focus of his research, policy and advocacy work for more than four decades.

His interest in Noncommunicable Diseases took him to the World Health Organisation in Geneva where he helped guide the Global Strategy on Diet Physical Activity and Health through the World Health Assembly in 2004. In 2016, he was a Commissioner on the WHO Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO) Commission. Building the health and research capacity of nations, supporting colleagues in Pacific and Public Health and creating pathways for young people has been a major part of this work.

He was awarded a Knighthood of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2022 for services to Pacific and Public Health.