I am a passionate transdisciplinary social scientist specializing in environmental management and climate change adaptation, focusing on specifically Indigenous peoples and other under-represented groups. My expertise spans climate adaptation's social and cultural aspects, emphasising climate justice, gender justice, Indigenous and local knowledge, and decolonial environmental management practices.

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Of Indigenous Māori and non-Indigenous descent, I am committed to decolonialising research and teaching. I engage with various disciplinary traditions and techniques, including human geography, historical studies, environmental management, sociology, and Indigenous studies, to investigate Indigenous and other historically marginalised communities' experiences of and relationships with changing social-ecological systems.

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I proudly contributed to the IPCC Working Group II's Sixth Assessment Report, am co-editor-in-chief for Climate Risk Management, and an editorial board member for Landscape Research.

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I teach various courses at the University of Auckland in Human Geography, Sustainability, and Environmental Management. I also supervise Honours, Masters and PhD students on a wide range of topics related to climate change, including climate adaptation and climate justice, settler colonialism and neo-colonialism and racial capitalism in the context of environmental change, as well as Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous environmental justice and freshwater management and governance. 

- Historical geographies of colonialism and environmental change
- Indigenous peoples' perceptions and responses to climate change
- Decolonising approaches to freshwater and coastal governance and management regimes
- Socio-cultural dimensions of climate mitigation
- Climate change adaptation and justice (social, climate, gender)
- Decolonising methodologies and co-production of knowledge
- Interaction of different knowledge systems (western scientific, Indigenous and local knowledges)
- Indigenous histories and conceptualisatons of health and wellbeing

Distinctions/Honours:

The University of Auckland, School of Environment, Early Career Research Award, 2015

The University of Auckland, School of Environment, Geography Research Award, 2017

International Social Sciences Council, Transformations to Sustainability, Seed Funding Grant, Indigenous Transformations towards Sustainability, Principal Investigator, 2015

Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Standard Grant, Rethinking Freshwater Management in Aotearoa New Zealand, Principal Investigator (co-PI Dr Karen Fisher), 2016

National Science Challenge: Sustainable Seas, Project Grant, Enabling kaitiakitanga within ecosystem-based management (co-PI Lara Taylor), 2020

Contributing Author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II Sixth Assessment, Chapter 15 (Small Islands) and Chapter 18 (Climate Resilient Development Pathways)

Responsibilities:

Course Co-ordinator, ENVMGT 742

Ethics Advisor for School of Environment

Committee/Professional groups/Services:

New Zealand Geographical Society

Women's Environmental History Network

Australian and New Zealand Environmental History Network


Qualifications:
PhD (Sydney) 2009, BSocSc with First Class Honours (Waikato) 2005

Areas of Expertise:
Historical geography, social dimensions of climate change adaptation, climate justice, Indigenous geographies