Invested with the King’s New Zealand Honours in 2023, with an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM), for my services to ethic communities, I am a woman of peace and prayer and a scholar of colour. As Aotearoa’s first Professor of Diversity, I am a passionate engaged ethnic minority woman and bring my unique gifts of engagement, networking, strategic thinking and world class research with outcomes focus to my governance experience and achievements. My robust independent views are articulated with gentle assertiveness braided with consensus decision making. These strong professional and personal qualities are enhanced through collaborations in Europe, Oceania, South Asia, UK and USA and my knowledge of Te Ao Maori. This year I am a Visiting Academic at Oxford University UK, and a Visiting Professor (2024-2025) at the Turku Institute of Advanced Studies, Finland.
A Fulbright alumna, recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh Fellowship, and the Te Rangi Hiroa Royal Society medal for my work on intersectional diversity, I am a thought leader and knowledgeable interpreter of diversity in society, religion, business, communities and education. I weave the strands of fragile silences and illuminate stories, often not told, on hard issues, by a range of stakeholders. Through my mana in bearing witness to difference, I create inroads for ethnic and host society peoples through grace, kindness, sincerity and determination. In unsettling current boundaries, I rupture glass, concrete and bamboo ceilings, to create a safe and inclusive Aotearoa for all peoples in their myriad manifestations and vulnerabilities. With my emotional and intellectual skills, and a grateful heart, I serve as a responsible kaitaiaki and ancestor for current and future generations in our woven universe, empowering communities to deliver for their people.
Select publications: https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/people/view/556
