Rate My Professor Linda Holloway

Emeritus Professor Dame Linda Holloway, a distinguished pathologist, has had a profound impact on medical education and health policy at the University of Otago's Faculty of Medicine. Born and educated in Scotland, she earned her MB ChB from the University of Aberdeen in 1964, receiving a Travelling Scholarship in Pathology to the Karolinska Institute during her undergraduate studies and a Nuffield travelling scholarship to Fiji. After marrying an Otago graduate and moving to New Zealand in 1970, she initially practiced rural general medicine in Gisborne and South Otago before completing her specialist training in pathology in Dunedin in 1975. That year, she joined the University of Otago as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pathology at the Wellington School of Medicine. She briefly returned to Scotland as Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, where she completed her doctoral studies (MD) in perinatal pathology, before rejoining Otago in 1978. Appointed Professor in 1994, she served as the first woman Dean of the Wellington School of Medicine for its final two years.

In 1999, Holloway relocated to Dunedin as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (later Pro-Vice-Chancellor) for Health Sciences until 2005, promoting interprofessional education, and then as Dean of the Otago Medical School until her retirement in 2006—the only woman to hold this role. Her research specializations include perinatal pathology, respiratory disease, and breast cancer. She served as the pathology medical advisor for the Cartwright Inquiry (1987–1988), a pivotal investigation that advanced patient rights and healthcare reforms globally. Holloway has held influential positions such as Chair of the National Health Committee, member of the Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee, ten-year Chair of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, and director of the Institute of Environmental Health and Forensic Sciences Ltd. Post-retirement, she continues teaching pathology to undergraduate medical students and providing interim leadership. Her contributions earned the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (1997), Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (2005), Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (2009), and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Otago (2024).