Ema Sanga has strong formations into the Pacific community across the academic and diaspora spaces in NZ, Samoa and Australia. Ema also participates in a Leadership Pacific movement – an emerging leader initiative that captures, identifies, develops and deploys young Pacific leaders in the spheres of influence they occupy. Ema has completed projects across national and local focus areas in leadership, health and wellbeing, Indigenous knowledge, and capability development using traditional Pacific frameworks and a mental models approach. Ema has been mentored by some of the Pacific’s pioneering thought leaders which have helped shape her worldview in what lessons can be drawn from past contexts to call-to-action initiatives for the future. Ema was a team member of the 2021 Pacific Leadership research project with NZ’s MoH, conducting the literature review about Pacific conceptualisations, the health workforce and existing programmes of leadership at every level of the system/an organisation. Ema Sanga supported writing throughout this Rising Stories project and assisted with the literature review.