Dr Audrey Aumua

Chief Executive Officer, Fred Hollows Foundation NZ and Member, ACIAR Policy Advisory Council

Dr Aumua oversees the work of The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ which has a mission to end avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific. She took up this role in January 2021 after serving as the Deputy Director General of the Pacific Community SPC based in Suva for 6 years.  The Pacific Community, being the largest regional science and development organisation in the region, is the host of the largest scientific agriculture and livelihoods program in the Pacific including the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees which is responsible for conserving the regions genetic resources.   

A key focus of Dr Aumua’s work previously had been to shape many of the Pacific regions programmes around food and nutrition security to the impacts of disasters and climate change. Pacific food systems, in particular coastal food systems, has been a key interest .  Dr Aumua’s background is in the area of public health and nutrition and policy and non-communicable diseases and she has worked both as an academic and a practitioner.

Dr Aumua has been a member of the ACIAR policy board for three years bringing both policy and sustainable development knowledge in land resources and nutrition to the work of ACIAR.  Dr Aumua has extensive experience in research, policy development and management in New Zealand and Australia, Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.  She has worked in regional development and held a variety of regional leadership roles across the Pacific.

Dr Audrey Aumua’s 2022 Sir John Crawford Memorial Address titled, “Food and Nutrition Security in the Pacific and the Road Ahead for Small Islands and Developing States.”