Otago University Medical Students' Association
2024 ELM Executive
Dakyung Lee
President
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
president@oumsa.org
Kia ora everyone!
I’m Dakyung (DK) and I’m honoured to be your OUMSA president for 2024. My role involves advocating for our ELM whānau and supporting the fantastic 2024 executive team to deliver a variety of academic, social and cultural events throughout the year. I highly encourage you to put yourself out there and get involved – this is the year to make your closest friends, explore new hobbies and learn more than you thought possible. You have earned your spot in this cohort; it’s time to embrace it and make your medical school journey unforgettable! If you have any ideas on how OUMSA could better advocate for you or have any concerns, please reach out to me at any time; I’m always down for a coffee. Have the best year and I’ll see you around campus soon!
Brian Wong
Vice President – Administration
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
vpa@oumsa.org
Kia ora Med whānau!
My name is Brian and I am humbled to be selected as your Vice President Administration for 2024. My role mainly involves the administrative aspect of OUMSA such as managing the OUMSA office, communications including social platforms, and internal affairs along with our VPE Ali.
I was born in Hong Kong and grew up in both Hong Kong and New Zealand. I am a registered pharmacist and dad to two cats named Minky and Marvel and our chief welfare animal officer, Murphy. In my spare time, I enjoy going for a walk with Murphy, cooking some nice food (especially on the barbie) and watching a good show or footy game.
Please come and have a yarn if you see me around and happy to share my experience and advice!
Ali Dohan
Vice President – External
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
vpe@oumsa.org
Kia ora!
My name is Ali and it’s an absolute honour to take on the role of your Vice President External for 2024. I’m the force behind the scenes for the epic Ascend Professional Development Programme as well as the incredibly inclusive and insightful UNITY seminars. Be prepared for some interstream showdowns too! I aim for smooth sailing for all, including our fantastic affiliated groups.
I’m a true local, born and bred in this stunning city. You are likely to catch me in my natural habitat, the second floor of Central Library, where I become one with Notion. But when I’m not buried in there, you’ll find me unleashing my energy at the gym, sprinting around the breathtaking harbour or just simply kicking back with my buddies, sharing laughs over a good movie and a dinner my bank account can barely afford.
If you happen to spot me during my antics, don’t hesitate to give a shout or share a friendly chat – I’m always up for a good yarn.
Here’s to an unforgettable 2024!
Cheers
Ish Sediqi
Treasurer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
treasurer@oumsa.org
Kia Ora!
I’m honoured to take on the role of Treasurer for OUMSA in 2024. My primary goal is to maintain transparency, responsibility, and accountability in managing OUSMA’s funds. I’ll work diligently to allocate resources effectively to support our diverse activities, events, and initiatives that benefit our medical students. I encourage you to share your thoughts and ideas on how we can best utilise our resources to serve our members.
Boston Christensen
Education Officer – Internal
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
educationinternal@oumsa.org
Kia ora everyone!
My name is Boston and I am the Education Officer Internal for 2024! As part of my role in 2024, I am in charge of organising the highly sought after, highly necessary and extremely high yield ‘Study Buddy’ tutorials throughout the year. These tutorials are delivered by the incredible students who have “been there and done that”, being the ELM3’s and ALM’s. They are comprised of a well put together summary of the medical content (which can at times be overwhelming), turning it into key points, new ways to remember or understand the ideas, and effective strategies for tackling the kinds of questions which are asked in exams. As well as organising these tutorials, my role involves attending the fortnightly education meetings, and supporting both those who are parents in medicine and those who are sitting the special exams at the end of the year.
Some things that I like doing are spending time with friends or family, and if there is time at the end of the day I try my best to make it to the gym. I look forward to seeing you all, and don’t hesitate to say hi if you see me around! Also feel free to flick me an email if you have any questions!
Ashwini Sukumaran
Education Officer – External
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
education@oumsa.org
Kia Ora – I’m Ashwini, your Education Officer External for 2024! As the external officer, I am responsible for chairing the education meetings, where I will be communicating your thoughts and feedback to our lecturers. This helps us improve our course to better fit the students learning it!
In my free time, I love seeing friends, playing some badminton (or at least trying to) and indulging in some very extensive Netflix marathons…
If you’re keen to pass on some feedback, feel free to strike up a conversation, email me at education@oumsa.org, or add to our education feedback forms!
Tiara Das
Welfare Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
welfare@oumsa.org
Kia Ora Team!
I am so excited to serve as your welfare officer for 2024. I’ve been in Dunedin for 4 years now and have an undergraduate degree in Psychology. I am from India and moved to this beautiful country 5 years ago.
You are likely to see me at OUMSA events organising welfare and making sure everyone is having a good time, safely! I also look forward to organising a great welfare week for you all, among other things.
Kia Wales
Social Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
social@oumsa.org
Hey team!
My name is Kia Wales and I am a farm gal from Central Otago. I love to read, run and ride my horse and I have the privilege of being your social officer for 2023!! This means that I will be organising all of the epic social events for the year, including the o-week ball, med wine & cheese, flat crawl, and the greatly anticipated med ball. These events are run for all you beautiful people so if you have any questions/queries/complaints then please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
My advice is to get involved and HAVE FUN – these events are so so worth it and the more people show up, the better they are!!! 🎉
Nicholas Harman
Sports Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
sports@oumsa.org
Kia ora guys, I’m Nic and I love sports!
Whether it be the famous beer pong tournament, the epic ski trip or a bit of social sport with your mates, as sports officer for 2024, I’m here to help make all of these things happen.
While there are many events that are calendar staples, I’m here to organise events that you want to do. So if you have any ideas about something else that you would like to see, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
If I don’t bump into you in the hunter centre, you’ll see me out on the volleyball/basketball/tennis court, on the stage of T-col performing in med revue or in a café playing the sax as part of a jazz combo.
All the best for the year, and I can’t wait to see you out there!
Pearl Bir
Community Outreach Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
communityoutreach@oumsa.org
Hi everyone, my name’s Pearl and I am incredibly excited to be your Community Outreach officer for 2024! Some of the biggest events I will be organising this year are Volunteer Day at O-week, Relay For Life, and Teddy Bear Hospital (honestly the cutest event you could ever attend, you’ll see why🥹). I encourage you all to get involved – not only is it a rewarding act of service towards our community, but you leave with a bunch of new friends and perhaps even a new hobby!
As for myself, I love hiking/tramping, singing and writing songs, spending time at my church, laughing with friends till I physically can’t breathe, having some solid 12am DMCs, but most of all, being with my family.
If you have any ideas about community outreach, msg me and I would love to meet up and discuss them with you!
Francine Sales
Communications/Sponsorship Officer
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
sponsorship@oumsa.org
Hi everyone, 👋🏽
My name is Francine, and I’m super excited to be 2024’s Sponsorships and Communications Officer! A bit about me is that I come from the wop wops (Patoka) located in the sunny Hawke’s Bay, and I’m ethnically Filipino. However, you may spot me catching rays in Health Sci library. My hobbies include painting and drawing, and my guilty pleasure is watching ASMR slime compilations🤫🎨.
As Spons/Comms officer, my role includes securing sponsorships and discounts for OUMSA, to hopefully relieve that torturous strain on our wallets. I’m also involved in organising med merch, and posting here and there on OUMSA social media (IG: @oumsa_gram). I’m excited to see what the year brings, and don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions or ideas!
Hannah Riley
ECCO Convenor
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
ecco@oumsa.org
Hi everyone!
My name is Hannah and I am so excited to be the convenor for the 19th instalment of ECCO, the annual Early Learning in Medicine Clinical Conference. As part of my role as convenor I am responsible for leading the 2024 ECCO Committee. We will bring you all an amazing gala night and a weekend full of learning experiences. One of my main goals this year is to widen the breadth of the workshop hosts to bring ELM students a wide variety of learning opportunities. We look forward to seeing you at ECCO 2024!
Lakshay
Website/Store Administrator
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
webmaster@oumsa.org
Welcome to the OUMSA website.
I’m Lakshay, this year’s Webmaster. My role involves resolving website issues, curating a seamless online store and of course, making it all look aesthetic. I manage uploading and processing of product and event ticket sales and I’m also working towards restarting the OUMSA Newsletter. I’m the appropriate person to contact if you have any issues or questions about anything on the store. The OUMSA team hopes you have a great year.
Luke Stedman
Gap Year Rep
Bachelor of Arts – Theology
gapyear@oumsa.org
Kia ora! I’m Luke your Gap Year Rep! I’m currently Taking a gap year between ELM3 and ALM4 to complete a BA. My role is to advocate for the gap year students – if this is you hit me up! If you have any questions about taking a gap year and the different options available I would love to catch up with you.
I’m Christchurch raised and love to run, ski, water ski, read and vibe with friends and fam! Can’t wait to see you all throughout the coming year – and hopefully convince you to do a gap year 🙂
Emma Hollingworth
3rd Year Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
3rdyear@oumsa.org
Kia ora e te whānau! My name is Emma Hollingworth and I have the privilege of being the 2024 3rd Year Representative. I am excited to organize an epic demigrad, get gorgeous cohort photos and most importantly work my hardest towards a fair and transparent class division process. In my spare time you’ll find me singing, dancing, in the kitchen cooking up a storm or at UniPol group fitness classes. If we relate on any of these things, or you have suggestions or queries for OUMSA, feel free to say hello
Cam Young
NZMSA General Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
nzmsa_rep@oumsa.org
Kia orāna tātou kātoatoa!
My mother is from the beautiful Cook Islands and Sāmoa, and my dad’s family hail from Scotland and England. I’m in my third year of medicine (my sixth year at uni, yikes) and my best trait includes making spaghetti on pizza.
The New Zealand Medical Students’ Association (NZMSA) is our med mother looking after us at a national and political level. In my role, I am the main line of communication between our scarfies and the mothership (what can I say, I’m a momma’s boy).
It is a pleasure to serve in this role and I look forward to welcoming you all into the 2024 med whānau. Kia manuia (all the best) and don’t forget to drink that water
Maioha Haimona-Ngawharau
TOKO Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
toko_rep@oumsa.org
E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā karangaranga maha, tēnā rā koutou katoa!
Ko wai au? He uri tēnei nō Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Awa, Ngāpuhi me Te Arawa. Ko Maioha Haimona-Ngawharau tōku ingoa.
I am grateful to be the Te Ao Māori Officer for OUMSA Exec 2024. As Te Ao Māori officer I hope to be an advocate for Māori in all spaces within our medical school, and to be a force in creating a culturally safe environment for all tauira to learn. I aspire to normalise the use of Te Reo Māori in our learning, and provide opportunities for tauira māori to work with rangatahi through kura kaupapa and outreach programs to draw more of our people into health professions. I am also fortunate to be able to lead initiatives that provide all our tauira and staff in the medical school opportunities to learn more of Ngā mea Māori. I am so excited to work alongside our amazing team on both the TOKO Exec and OUMSA to ensure tikanga and kawa are upheld in all our mahi as promising health professionals. Most importantly, I want to make 2024 an even better year of learning for all tauira, Māori and Non-Māori so we can all enjoy our experience at medical school. If you are a tauira with ideas, concerns, aspirations or pātai, tēnā koa, pā mai! I am super keen to connect and have a kōrero with others!
Carmel Ah Chong
Pacific (PIHPSA) Rep
Early Learning in Medicine – 3rd Year
pihpsa_rep@oumsa.org
Talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings! I’m Carmel, your OUMSA Pacific representative for 2024, a role that I am both humbled and excited to take on. I hail from the beautiful country of Samoa but was born and raised in Auckland (go the mighty Blues!). My role sees me maintaining a positive relationship between OUMSA and the Pacific Health Professionals Students Association (PIHPSA), whilst promoting Pacific values and practices among staff and fellow students. I, alongside a dedicated team, advocate on behalf of Pacific pupils and organize events that foster engagement with Pacific culture. So, stay tuned for these events, we’d love to have you join us!
As Pasifika, we greatly value collectivism and have a strong desire to share our cultural traditions but are always willing to learn more about others. “O lupe sa vao ese’ese ae ua fuifui faatasi” – we may come from different parts of the forest, but we are united in a common purpose: providing the best care for our future patients. If you have any questions or just want to have a yarn please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Fa’afetai tele lava and best of luck for the upcoming year! 🫶
Murphy
Chief Welfare Animal Officer
Hi everyone – my name is Murphy, and I am a 3½ year old golden retriever. My favourite hobbies include playing fetch, chasing my cat brother, and snoozing on my mom & dad’s bed. I am also a trained St John Therapy Pet. I will come to the OUMSA office from time to time to hold cuddle fix sessions, and I am looking forward to meeting you all!