Rate My Professor Kelly-Ann Tahitahi

Kelly-Ann Tahitahi serves as Hocken Librarian and Associate University Librarian – Māori and Strategic Development at the University of Otago Library. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Postgraduate Diploma, both from the University of Otago. Her professional journey at the university encompasses diverse roles supporting Māori students and strategic initiatives. From 2013 to 2018, she was the Māori Orientation and Māori Mentoring Co-ordinator at Te Huka Mātauraka. As a postgraduate student at Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, Tahitahi contributed research informing the 2014 launch of the educational game 'Aki'. In 2020, she taught the MAOR108 Māori Performing Arts paper, effectively shifting to online Zoom delivery during the COVID-19 lockdown, building on prior preparations for international students using Blackboard recordings and continuity plans. Earlier that year, as Māori Communications Adviser, she supported outreach for university research on topics including Māori cancer diagnosis disparities, BMI inconsistencies for Māori and Pacific peoples, stomach cancer testing criteria, and cannabis referendum implications for Māori decision-making.

Tahitahi maintains an active research profile, co-authoring the 2024 article 'Ko au tēnei: This is me - Exploring the lived experience of underrepresented groups with pharmacy services to inform the development of pharmacy case-based learning' in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. Affiliated with Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, and Waikato iwi, she integrates cultural expertise into her library leadership, overseeing the Hocken Collections team handling archives, art, photography, published works, special collections, and Māori taonga. Her tenure includes representing the Hocken on the Friends Committee and contributing to digitization efforts such as the Herries Beattie Collection.