This was a very important talk for those interested in Health Sciences, (with some excellent tips on Management, also!), delivered in a very friendly and approachable manner, full of hints for success and practical suggestions if things do not go quite as planned. Not by any means confined to academic matters, it was full of interest in other areas of life.
Assoc. Prof. Gibbons told us she had studied three sciences and two math subjects in school, appreciating the definite answers those topics provide at that level. Her uncle, a professor of engineering at Auckland University, encouraged her to pursue engineering, while Pat Harrison, the principal of Queen’s High School, urged her toward medicine. However, Megan herself was uncertain about which path to take. At that time, there was no first-year health sciences course (which she admitted she is secretly pleased about!). Placed on the waiting list for physiotherapy but accepted into physical education, she chose PE. However, after her first year, Megan realized it wasn’t the right fit and switched to studying nutrition. From there, she trained as a dietitian, enjoying the field partly because it involved subjects that she liked—chemistry and biology—while allowing her to avoid physics! “I quickly learned what I enjoyed and who the supportive staff were along the way.”
Megan’s career began as a community dietitian in Christchurch before she joined a medical research company, gaining experience in clinical trials. She then moved to Auckland, working again as a community dietitian, and later began teaching sports nutrition at Massey University, which had just launched a degree program.
After having children, she returned to Dunedin to be closer to her parents, which was helpful for babysitting! This also gave her the opportunity to reconsider her professional future, leading her to transition from community dietetics to full-time teaching.
“I began my teaching career at a polytechnic, initially in a personal training program, focusing on basic nutrition, anatomy, and physiology—anything I was given. I soon discovered I had a talent for teaching, which eventually led to receiving a national teaching award.” Megan later became the program leader for a newly developed Bachelor of Applied Science in Exercise Science and Health. In its first year, the program enrolled 45 students who might not have otherwise attended university, providing them with valuable opportunities and excellent job prospects.
Adventure Therapy
Later, Megan was asked to oversee occupational therapy alongside sports science—an unusual combination. She helped develop a postgraduate program in adventure therapy, designed to support individuals with mental health disorders through outdoor activities like hiking and climbing. As her career progressed, she joined the senior leadership team, taking on responsibilities related to sustainability, people and culture, quality management, and financial oversight. Then came COVID-19.
“With our chief executive officer in transition, in January 2020, I was urged to apply for the chief executive role at the polytechnic. I interviewed on March 13, 2020, and was officially appointed on March 25—just as the country went into lockdown!”
The plan had been for a three-month transition period working alongside the retiring Chief Executive, but the pandemic disrupted those plans. During lockdown, Dr. Gibbons managed communication with staff and made critical operational decisions. This experience strengthened trust in her leadership, and she held the chief executive position for about a year and a half. By late 2022, as her contract was ending, she faced potential joblessness. However, she was offered the role of Deputy Chief Executive at Te Pūkenga, focusing on academics.
“I was one of the few chief executives in the polytechnic sector with both a PhD and an understanding of quality in teaching. So, I got to oversee quality systems, academic boards, research infrastructure, and our research strategy.”
However, restructuring following a change in government required frequent travel to Auckland—something that took a toll both personally and mentally. “I have a lot of air points!”
At the same time, the restructuring was dismantling many of the systems she had been working to establish, including a program to retrain apprentices dropped by cash-strapped firms. This led her to seek new opportunities.
When she was first approached about the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor for Health Sciences, she hesitated due to her non-academic background.
“But senior leaders were quite persuasive. I went through the interview process and was appointed, starting at the end of April last year. I was petrified—absolutely scared—because everybody I spoke to, I could Google them, and they'd done amazing things. I wasn’t sure that I had done amazing things!”
At the time, the health sciences faculty had been stuck in a three-year-long structural review with extensive planning and consultation—but no concrete outcomes. Many were waiting for decisions to be made before taking action. “In July, I said, ‘This is it. We're done. This is what it's going to be. Everyone went, ‘Whoa, we don’t make decisions that fast!’”
Since then, Megan has worked to establish a functional structure that promotes collaboration and efficiency. “Behind the scenes, we’re bringing different teams together to improve support for students, create a culturally competent curriculum, and integrate research into teaching. And now—I really like my job.”
The Essence of Leadership
"If you had spoken to me last September, my perspective might have been different. However, I’ve since come to realise that effective leadership is about helping others see their own paths and potential. It’s crucial to set boundaries while encouraging people to explore and push their limits in a positive way. My journey, somewhat unexpectedly, has led me to educational leadership."
“I’ve been to Harvard and completed a course on educational leadership—it was two weeks of absolute bliss. Living in Cambridge, walking around the campus, being a student without having to make my bed because the hotel did that, and having meals provided—it was an incredible experience.”
[Eds. note: Harvard University is in Cambridge, Massachusetts.]
"Throughout my career, I’ve balanced my professional life with family and coaching athletics. My experiences in sports have shown me how to nurture potential in young individuals who are genuinely driven to excel. My own children have followed their own paths, and coaching has been a rewarding opportunity to work alongside motivated youth. It’s about taking opportunities and giving things a go. Most of the time, it’s scary—but if you say yes, you never know what might happen. If you make a mistake, it’s easy to say, ‘I made a mistake,’ and move forward. There’s no single set pathway—that would be my advice.”
"Be open to new opportunities"
Questions
Q1.” You've had a lot of change in your career with various pathways. How have you adapted, and how has your family coped with those changes?"
A1. “I believe it's essential to seize opportunities. While in Auckland as a dietitian, I unexpectedly found myself on TV and working with corporate clients, which stretched my skillset. My family has adapted well; my husband, a former Olympian, now teaches in a primary school. It's been amazing because he's had school holidays off and so we've been able to manage having children and them not having to be in holiday programs and things all of the time. The flexibility in his schedule has allowed us to manage family life better. Balancing time between my career and being present for the kids has been crucial, and we navigate that by prioritising what's important. I often encourage my children, suggesting that opportunities can lead to unexpected paths, similar to my experience.”
Q2. "How did you know when it was time to move on from a specific career phase?"
A2. “I didn't always consciously know I was done with one role before moving to another; instead, I followed opportunities as they appeared. Initially, I was a community dietitian, and while there, I also began working at the Millennium Institute with athletes, leading to teaching sports nutrition at Massey. It wasn’t so much about being done but rather about embracing new opportunities as they arose."
"I've always had the philosophy, if you're going to
do something, do it well."
Q3. ”Looking back, is there anything you would change about your educational path?"
A3. "With hindsight, I might have been more patient and open to potential career options, particularly medicine. While I ended up loving nutrition and my studies in it, I initially rushed to accept offers without fully exploring what I truly wanted to pursue. But I think the big thing from that is while you've got ambitions of medicine and dentistry, there's so many other things. I was talking to a student last week who wanted to go into medicine because she wanted to cure cancer and I said, you actually may not get to do that in medicine, you're more likely to treat cancer. If you want to cure cancer, you have to be a biomedical scientist and that's a different pathway, but they're aligned. I encourage you to be open to the various paths available to you and recognise that if something doesn’t work out as expected, it's not the end—there are always other options to explore."
"The key takeaway is that it’s acceptable to change your ambitions as you discover what truly excites you."
Two (or more) Words of Advice
Which are the two papers that First Year Health Science students tend to fail? Physics and Chemistry?
“No, Physics and Population Health. - Population Health is the only paper you will do this year that really gets you to think about the person and the criticality and what the impact of something might be and what data tells us about an outcome. Everything else has a yes/no answer. Population health doesn’t. It requires you to consider ‘this is what I think, and this is how I'm reading the data and here's my answer.’ It's just a change in mindset but be ready for it. It’s a really important one because it starts getting you thinking about a person rather than the components that make them up.”
Q4. "On that note, do you have any further advice for us?"
A4. "Enjoy the year! And I know that sounds really weird because it's a competitive year. Rather than just put your head down and study all year and forget about why you're doing that, remember the outcomes you're trying to get. If you keep in mind what you're trying to get to, it's much easier because you can understand then why you're putting the work in. But do the fun stuff as well. And as things come up that you start to like jot them down and start to have those conversations around actually what would this look like? Where could I do more of this kind of thing”
"To illustrate this last comment the Pro Vice-Chancellor told us about someone she knew who studies Health Science in her first year but failed to get into Medicine. She took on Biomedical Sciences but decided it was not really what she wanted and reflected back on the parts she had enjoyed the most, which were generally the analysis type stuff. So, she took some Commerce papers in the second half of the year including marketing - she thought that would be quite interesting because it was about getting stuff out into the community and that's where she thought health was as well. Turns out she really likes finance because there's yes/no answers, it's detailed. And so now she's just absolutely flying. So, find the things you like, and if you don’t get what you were aiming for, - or even if you do and then find you don’t like it - it’s not the end of the world."
"This year there are 1700 people in First Year Health Science hoping to do Health Sciences (and another 300 doing various FYHS papers). Efforts to persuade the Government to increase the number of places in Medicine may result in another 10 places here.”
Q5. "Have you noticed, especially in your sporting background, that there's a correlation between athletes and academic success with the values within sports?"
A5: "They tend to be head boys and head girls more than the top academic students. But they're usually pretty good. So not across the board always. But there's always a drive and ambition and that ability to work hard and see what you can do. It's an interesting one.
A number of young athletes in New Zealand, particularly from athletics, head off to the States on scholarship so they take that opportunity and again that's a different pathway that gives them an education. It’s not free, so it's not a free scholarship. It's quite expensive and it's a broad liberal undergraduate degree in most cases, and most of the professional programs are postgraduate.
So yes, I end up with lots of head boys and head girls, which is a pain because they're actually busy and they can struggle to train consistently!”
Q6. “You said your husband was in the Olympics, what event was he in?”
A6. “The pole vault. He is one of two male pole vaulters in New Zealand who have ever gone to the Olympics. He didn't do very well there because he was a bit overwhelmed, but he still has the New Zealand under 20 record and the New Zealand Senior record. It's 5 meters 40 and our New Zealand senior men's record is 5 meters 51.
He was also a very fast sprinter - he ran 10.4 and was part of New Zealand relay teams. He finished his schooling and spent the next 10 years competing and doing odd jobs to support himself to be able to train, travel and work with coaches. When we got married, he said, 'I want to go to university.' I'm like, 'You need to work!' So, he went off and trained to be a teacher after we got married." My daughter's teaching, and she complains about the mature student that asks all the questions. And my husband says, “That may have been me!”
Q7 "How did you meet?"
A7."I also did athletics which is why I coach it. But I wasn't as good, and I focused probably a bit more on academia. I was a hurdler and won New Zealand schools and went to Oceania Championships.
I didn't go to the Commonwealth Games or anything because I wasn’t that good, and I focused on study more - I didn't balance that part. I happened to know who he was, and we were at athletic meets, and we met there.
Q8. “Do your kids also do athletics?”
A8. “Yes, they do. My son is a hurdler, so he's competing in the senior meetings 110 meters this weekend. My daughter is a very good sprinter. She's part of The New Zealand under 20 relay team last year and she will probably medal in the 100 meters under 20 this weekend. And we're off to Aussie Champs in Perth at the end of the semester. She runs about 11.8 for 100 meters, which is relatively quick for a female.”
Q9. “How have you been able to balance all of your study and your work along with like other things that you may enjoy?”
A9. “I try and compartmentalise stuff a little bit. I used to get up at 5 in the morning and worked through to 7am at home to get things done and then did a full day of work. I was then pretty tired when I got home and didn't really do too much. What I worked out is actually if I get up, usually it's quarter to six now and I go for a walk and give myself space and make sure that I fit in my exercise, then the rest of the day is relatively easy."
"I will always choose to do the things that I feel have meaning. I will hand out sausages at the sports day, attending the Pacific welcome, attending the Māori welcome, attending health science prelim lectures, going to the pharmacy and the dentistry welcomes, which are really important because that's where we meet people and make connections. There's always work to do. My diary is horrific and when Zoë messaged me last week I thought, oh, that's next week, yep, I can do that, so you just make it work. And there are times where you just have to say, ‘I'll have a day.’ My EA doesn't put anything in my calendar on a Friday at all because that's my day to sit and actually get work done and try and catch up so that I'm not doing it all weekend. But we have senior leadership team meetings on a Monday morning, and on a really bad week there might be 200 pages to read in preparation for that. They're getting better. Grant's making it a bit less but you kind of know that from 4:00pm on a Sunday through to about 8:00pm, you will be preparing for the week ahead. I came in relatively early this morning because I'm not well planned for tomorrow. I was trying to work out when I had athletes on and when they had to be at call rooms and when I needed to touch base with them. So, I just came in nice and early to get that sorted so that it's ready for tomorrow."
"Learning Together is the Most Effective Way"
"Have fun! That’s the most important thing - meeting people, getting to know people, working together. You will learn way better with other people than by yourselves. That ability to test concepts and to hear your level of understanding in a conversation is what helps it cement. Reading is the most ineffective way of learning. Then read and write, then read and write and talk, and then being able to explain it in your own words. If you get to that stage and you kind of know it, that is what your lecturers are doing, they know it and they're talking to you about it.”
Q10. “When your husband reached the peak of his athletics career, how did he transition into primary education - given that many athletes, when they have reached the top, have a really tough time from that point.”
A10. “He had significant early success; at just 20 years old. During the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, he broke the New Zealand record for his category. He competed in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and participated in several world championships afterward. However, he faced a tougher five-year period from 1992 to 1997, struggling with understanding his path while friends began building careers, he didn’t see much improvement in his performance. However, he then reached good levels in 1997 again breaking the NZ record. He aimed for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 but prior to the games, decided he could no longer pursue athletics full-time, as his motivation had changed. After the Olympic season, he recognised that he had reached a natural conclusion to that chapter in his life. In the early 2000s, we got married, and he then explored different career opportunities. He worked in sport development but grew frustrated with the lack of substantial advancement. It's challenging to invest so much in something and then have to shift focus when things don’t go as planned. However, there is now much more support in New Zealand for athletes transitioning out of high-performance sports. In the past, the system often neglected those who were no longer competing at elite levels.”
[Eds. note: Paul Gibbons has an entry in Wikipedia if you would like to know more about his career].
Q11 "Concerned subcategories in Professional Programmes"
A11. “The subcategories are established to diversify the demographics of our health workforce. They aim to provide opportunities to individuals who have previously not had access to them. There is a preference system in the selection criteria; however, a standard must still be maintained within these subcategories.
For example, Dentistry has 60 places available this year, but we plan to increase that by eight next year. If we had 70 Māori students applying, not all of them would secure a place due to the selection criteria in place for these subcategories. We seek students who meet the eligibility criteria with the required academic performance, typically around a 65 to 70% average across their courses. Additionally, it is important that students can engage with the necessary support structures and understand how culture can impact their experience in the program. It’s not enough to simply possess a Māori identity; a deeper understanding is required.
We are currently reviewing this policy, and I will be going back to the first-year health science cohort to discuss what considerations we need to address in our review. Furthermore, we are also looking at developing a graduate entry pathway specifically for the medicine program. Which is common internationally and is what the University of Waikato is proposing."
Q12. “Do you recommend picking up an eighth paper if you find something interesting?”
A12. “I don't really, because 7 is already 126 credits and a full-time year is 120, so we already get you to do more than you need to.
However, if there was something that you were really interested in or you weren't sure of the path you want to take, it is the only opportunity that you really get to take anything different besides the prescribed papers. In an ideal world there'd be six papers in health science first year and you'd get to pick two more because then you could do things like legal studies, and you might want to be a lawyer for example. You have to weigh it up as to whether it's going to drop your marks by doing that extra loading or whether actually the paper that you're really interested might lift your marks because you can drop your lowest one out of health science first year. Four papers a semester as you know now is big and most students do a 4/3 split because they like to have a slightly lighter second semester so then they can lift their marks. That applies across all years of the university.”
Options After First Year Health Science
Q13. “What happens to people who take First Year Health Sciences - for instance, could they go on to do programming, or do they just continue with the Health Science course?”
A13. "We have about an 85% retention rate from First Year Health Science in the university. About 15% leave at the end of health science first year. - Some go and do professional programs in Australia, and some go and do things like nursing and other health professions and other options that we don't have, but the majority stay and they do usually the professional programs. These include Medicine, Dentistry, Physio, Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Science and then we've got radiation therapy, oral health, dental technology, nursing's graduate entry. They are the main health professional programs. And there's a Bachelor of Health Science which is in Global Health, Pacific Health, Māori Health or Public Health.
And then there's a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences which is a combination of two of the areas into a pathway. So, things like drugs and health - you might do some physiology and pharmacology. There's a nutrition one that combines with anatomy and so there's some really cool combinations."
"And then there's genetics, neuroscience and BSc majors from the subject area. So, there's lots of different pathways. If people don't get into med or dent, they quite often do anatomy as their degree because that gives you a bit of a leg up when you go in to do particularly medicine. So do a three-year Bachelor of Science in anatomy and then go in as a graduate, which is also a good pathway - It’s long, I get that, but it's giving you a bit of sense of space as well, because next year at 18 or 19, seeing cadavers and those sorts of things is quite hard. Those that go into dentistry get their own set of teeth to play with. But that's all right!"
An Invitation re Alternatives to the Main Professional Courses
“Would it be helpful this year if you got the opportunity to see some of the spaces and hear what some of the other options are? Because we do a health sciences night in about May and then we talk about the professional programs and how to get into them in July, but we don't really give you the other options. So, if that's something that you think is useful, then I can have a chat to the program as well. Just more exposure, especially for people who are just straight out of school and haven't had a chance to really navigate the health sector. To be honest, everyone knows what a doctor and a dentist is and a physiotherapist, but actually there's some really cool jobs and people that we have that are a little bit different as well.”
