Rate My Professor Sunia Foliaki

Professor Sunia Foliaki, MBChB from the University of Papua New Guinea, MTH from the University of Queensland (1992), and PhD from Massey University (2008), serves as Professor in Public Health at Massey University’s Centre for Public Health Research within the College of Health. A public health physician of Tongan origin from Ha’afeva and Kanokupolu, he co-leads Pacific health research. His doctoral research focused on the epidemiology of asthma among high school students in selected Pacific Island countries, including Tokelau, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Niue, and the Cook Islands, utilizing the standardized International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) methodology, for which he acted as the Oceania regional coordinator.

Progressing through roles such as Research Officer and Senior Pacific Health Research Fellow at Massey University, Foliaki was promoted to Professor effective January 2025. His research interests center on public health issues among Pacific populations in New Zealand and the Pacific islands, encompassing the epidemiology of cancer and asthma, non-communicable diseases, food security policies and programmes, palliative care services utilization and experiences, and regional consultancies for Pacific islands ministries of health. Key projects include ISAAC studies in the Pacific, Health Research Council funding for asthma among Pacific children, and Marsden-funded research. Recent achievements feature a $3.6 million grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to enhance timely health services access in Tonga and a $363,000 Ministry of Health grant to bolster palliative care in Polynesia. He currently leads a qualitative study assessing palliative care use among Pacific populations in New Zealand.

Major publications include “Prevention and control of diabetes in Pacific people” (2003, New Zealand Medical Journal), “Cancer incidence in four Pacific countries: Tonga, Fiji Islands, Cook Islands and Niue” (2004), “Prevalence of HPV infection and other risk factors in a Fijian population” (2014), “Cancer control in the Pacific: big challenges facing small nations” (2019, The Lancet Oncology), “Pacific Meets West in Addressing Palliative Care for Pasifika People in New Zealand” (2020, BMC Palliative Care), and “Acceptability of human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling for cervical-cancer screening: a mixed-methods study among Māori and Pasifika women” (2021). His work has accumulated over 3,400 citations. In 2025, Professor Foliaki was elected a Fellow of the Pacific Academy of Sciences, recognizing his contributions to science in the Pacific region.