Contact Details
- Phone
- +64 21 199 6525
- jane.taafaki@otago.ac.nz
University Links
- Position
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Qualifications
- PhD (Otago), MPA University of Hawaii, BA George Washington University.
- Research summary
- Focused on Pasifika and rural health
- Teaching
- Pacific Health curriculum for Allied Health (Pharmacy, Dental, Physiotherapy)
Additional details
Tuvaluan-British by birth, Jane was born in England and lived in India until she was 11, before her family moved to the USA for her parents’ graduate school education. After university, she moved to the Marshall Islands for seven years before pursuing her Master’s in Honolulu, Hawaii where she worked for 15 years before moving to Oamaru, Otago to do her PhD studies. Her research was focused on the lived experiences of rural Tuvaluan migrants navigating the Aotearoa New Zealand healthcare system.
Jane's postdoctoral fellowship at the Va’a o Tautai - Centre for Pacific Health is on creating a model for COVID-19 response, based on the experiences of a small rural Otago Pacific Organisation. She is also heavily involved with a number rural health and school of Physiotherapy studies relating to COVID-19, Pasifika health and long-term musculoskeletal injuries of Pasifika meat workers.
Jane is married with three beautiful daughters. She is currently a full-time researcher within the Va’a o Tautai – Centre for Pacific Health, and has a role teaching the Pacific Health curriculum in Health Professional Programmes in the Division of Health Sciences.