Aiono Dr Alec Ekeroma

Aiono Dr Alec Ekeroma is a founding member of South Seas Healthcare and a founding member of the Pasifika Medical Association.

Dr Ekeroma's teaching and course development contribution spans the past 21 years and his approach has evolved from observation, feedback and reading. For about 10 of these 21 years, he was the only academic obstetrician and gynaecologist in Middlemore Hospital, responsible for scheduling and delivering the undergraduate teaching programme.

In April 2018, the National University of Samoa (N.U.S) announced the appointment of Dr Ekeroma as the founding Professor at the School of Medicine. Dr Ekeroma played an instrumental part in establishing the medical school at the N.U.S and also played a lead role in the curriculum committee responsible for developing the school’s initial curriculum in 2014.

Prior to his appointment in Samoa, Dr Ekeroma was appointed by the University of Otago as the Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The prestigious appointment came shortly after completing his PhD in 2017. He is the first academic of Pacific origin to hold a professorial role in a specialised area of medicine in New Zealand, and also the first to head a University of Otago department.

Previously, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland and has held many leadership roles in the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, along with Pacific health organisations both within New Zealand and in the Pacific Islands. His areas of expertise include the fields of stillbirth, research capacity building, Pacific women’s health, vitamin D, medical curriculum development, gestational diabetes mellitus, and global health.

Dr Ekeroma is very passionate and committed to working on improving the health of Pacific communities in the region and New Zealand, particularly serving as a mentor to the next generation of Pacific health leaders. Recently, Dr Ekeroma received the Pasifika Medical Association Life Award, which recognises members for their outstanding service to Pacific health, and he also became the new Editor in Chief for Pacific Health Dialogue magazine.