Associate Professor Rachel Wolfgramm

After two decades of initiating and leading multiple Sustainability and Māori initiatives locally and internationally, Rachel was appointed Associate Dean Māori, Associate Dean Pacific, and Director of the Dame Mira Szászy Research Centre at the University of Auckland Business School. Rachel was also appointed  Director of Ngā Ara Whetu, Center for Climate, Biodiversity and Society along with fellow colleagues Professor Jaqueline Beggs, Professor JR Rowland, Professor David Noon, Professor Said Baroutian, Professor Rod McNaughton, Professor Niki Harre, A/Professor Maria Amoudian. https://www.ngaarawhetu.org/about/

From 2018, she pivoted her research interests towards investigating Artificial Intelligence. Her interests include the co-evolutiuon of AI-Human relationships and the impact on wellbeing at work including creative work, and the Whakapapa of AI (past, present and future). Along with Dr Billie Lythberg and Professor Refiti, Rachel was invited to participate in the GAIN (Global Narratives of Artificial Intelligence) led by Professor Alan Blackwell from the Cambridge University Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence. This project included wānanga and workshops with Māori and Pacific AI practitioners.

In 2023, Rachel was commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal to undertake the Historical Overview report for the Mana Wahine Kaupapa Inquiry, one of seven reports commissioned for this inquiry. The Historical Overview report included a 110 year period c.1840-1950. However, in order to establish Rangatiratanga and Mana Wahine Māori, the report included an overview of the period leading up to 1840. Rachel led a team of subject matter experts including senior Māori academic researchers and tohunga. With support from the Waitangi Tribunal Research Team, she completed the report in October 2024. Title: Mana Wāhine Māori i Ngā Wā o Mua, The impacts of Crown legislation, policy and practices on the rangatiratanga, status and roles of wāhine Māori c.1840-1950: 
Lead Author: Associate Professor Rachel Maunganui Wolfgramm
As an internatonally respected colleague, Rachel convenes, leads, chairs and presents research at conferences,  workshops, panels, symposia and, wānanga  in North and South America, UK, Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia and throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Rachel has published research with colleagues in top tier journals including Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Personnel Review, Big Data and Society, Leadership, Alternative, An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, Journal of Management Learning, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Māori and Indigenous Review, the International Journal of Sustainability and in books published by Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Chicago University Press, Information Age and Edward Elgar Publishing. Her doctoral, masters and honours supervisions focus on topics relating to sustainability, leadership, distributive innovation, food security and food sovereignty, Māori and indigenous leadership and business ethics.

Rachel is Lead Claimant for Rourou-The Māori Economy WAI 1920, a Te Tiriti o Waitangi Claim and Lead claimant for Te Whanau o Rangihaerepo WAI 1827, connected to Te Whakatōhea.