Ofa Dewes

Ofanaite Ana Dewes is a New Zealand academic, and an Associate Investigator at the Maurice Wilkins Centre and a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Academic career
Dewes was born and raised in Suva, Fiji of mixed Rotoman, Tongan, Tuvaluan, and Tokelauan ethnicity, and affiliates to the Māori iwi Ngāti Porou.

She gained a doctoral degree from the University of Auckland with a thesis entitled Obesity Prevention in Pacific Adolescents: Is there a role for the church?; she also has a Master of Business Administration. She later joined the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery as an Associate Investigator, and is a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland's Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences.

Her research is focussed on the Pasifika community in New Zealand, studying family caring, ageing, chronic diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes, and the role of the church in promoting well-being.

Dewes was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2023 for services to health and the Pacific community.