Rate My Professor Sarahmarie Kuroko

Sarahmarie Kuroko is a PhD candidate in the Children's Sleep Health Research Group within the Department of Women's and Children's Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago. Of Ngāti Kahungunu and Pākehā descent, she holds a double degree in psychology and human nutrition as well as a Master of Science in Human Nutrition from the University of Otago. Her master's thesis, supervised by Paula Skidmore, investigated the immediate and longer-term effects of an intensive cooking intervention designed to enhance cooking confidence, skills, and mental well-being among over 100 Year 9 and 10 students, demonstrating positive outcomes in these areas.

In 2019, Kuroko served as Kaiāwhina for the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago, where she supported approximately 100 first-year Māori students by drawing on her own experiences to help them overcome academic and personal challenges. Her PhD research employs innovative wearable camera and sleep sensor technologies to objectively measure preschoolers' bedtime routines and evening activities, examining their associations with sleep quality, child development, and whānau well-being. This addresses limitations in self-report methods prevalent in prior studies. Kuroko has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, including 'Create Our Own Kai: A Randomised Control Trial of a Cooking Intervention' (Nutrients, 2020), 'Effect of divergent continuous glucose monitoring technologies on glycaemic control in type 1 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials' (Diabetic Medicine, 2022), 'Comparing the glycaemic outcomes between real-time continuous glucose monitoring and intermittently scanned continuous glucose monitoring among adults and children with type 1 diabetes' (Diabetic Medicine, 2024), and papers on bidirectional associations between sleep and dietary intake in children (Nutrition Reviews, 2020 and 2021). Her works have collectively received over 189 citations. Kuroko has earned the New Investigator Award from the Sleep Association of Australia and New Zealand for her presentation 'Zooming in on bedtime routine variability,' the J Cowie Nichols Prize in Nutrition (2020), the Extraordinary Performance Award in second-year Psychology (2011), and a 2025-2026 Graduate Women New Zealand Fellowship.