Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand has announced the appointment of Markerita (Meg) Poutasi as National Director, Pacific Health.
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Fepulea’i Margie Apa says Markerita Poutasi brought with her an outstanding background in both Pacific health, and strategic planning.
“Markerita joins Te Whatu Ora from Te Toka Tumai (Auckland) where she most recently held the role of Chief of Strategy. She has a very strong focus on transformation of health structures to reflect Te Tiriti in both action and equity. As lead for Performance Improvement, she was instrumental in delivering new equity approaches within planned care delivery in Auckland.”
Meg has also worked as the Director of Pacific Health for the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre where she led the regional (from Northland to Counties Manukau) approach to the Pacific health response to COVID-19 and partnered with the Pacific Provider Collective to develop a regional commissioning framework to deliver adaptive models of care. She is a partnerships specialist and has a background in law and Pacific development.
Of Samoan heritage, Meg was also the former CEO of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation.
The daughter of Dame Dr. Karen Poutasi a former Director-General of Health, is experienced in change leadership, Pacific health equity and designing new models of care with communities.
Meg takes on the role as of 1st August.
Image credit: Te Whatu Ora- Health New Zealand