Simone Ada (nee Ngātai) is a medical student at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago. Simone started at Otago Medical School in 2022 after a mid-career change from a career in management and a business background.

Simone embraces this change as an opportunity to align her future career with her core values of equity, rangatiratanga, and service. In her future medical career, Simone hopes to contribute to improving health outcomes for Māori.

Simone has undertaken various volunteering roles alongside her medical studies. These include representing Dunedin medical students on the New Zealand Medical Student Association (NZMSA), serving as Tumuaki Tuarua on Te Oranga Ki Ōtākau (TOKŌ) and being the student leader within the Steering Committee of the Carosika Collaborative, a national transdisciplinary group aiming to achieve equity in pre-term birth rates.

Simone has been involved in research projects including, ‘Later School Start Times for Adolescent Health and Wellbeing’ and ‘Cardiothoracic Surgical Outcomes; A Māori Perspective’. Simone recently presented an abstract on ‘Isolated Rheumatic Mitral Valve Disease in Aotearoa’ to the Paediatric Society of New Zealand where she won the New Investigators Award.

Simone has a Bachelor of Business from Griffith University and a Masters of Business Administration from Bond University in Australia.

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Medical student encourages others to back themselves

Te Oranga ki Ōtākou