Longovuka and Jane

Longovuka is a teacher who is passionate about preventing non-communicable diseases (NCD) in Tonga. For three years, before commencing her Australia Awards, she held progressively senior teaching roles in two Tongan high schools.

Longovuka believes that collaboration between schools, community leaders, and governments is vital to helping students and their families establish healthy diets and access nutritious foods. Upon completion of her studies, Longovuka plans to collaborate with local leaders in order to contribute to consistent, evidence-based research to encourage better nutrition.

Jane has over 30 years’ experience working in public health advocacy, tobacco control, alcohol policy and obesity prevention. She currently leads the Obesity Policy Coalition, a partnership between Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Victoria, and GLOBE; the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University.

In this role, Jane oversees healthy weight campaigns and advocates for state- and national-level alcohol and obesity prevention reforms; with a focus on food marketing, labelling and pricing measures. Jane is active in the media as a commentator, advises state and federal governments on obesity policy, and collaborates on research grants and academic papers, blogs and opinion pieces.

In 2018, Jane was awarded a Deakin Honorary Doctorate for her contribution to public health advocacy, and the Public Health Association’s President’s Award in 2019. She is co-chair of the National Alliance for Action on Alcohol, President of the Australia and New Zealand Obesity Society, and a recipient of the Jack Brockhoff sponsored Churchill Fellowship.