Dr Tara McAllister (Te Aitanga ā Māhaki) is a scientist, interdisciplinary scholar and a mother. She earned a Bachelor of Science in ecology and biodiversity and marine biology from the Victoria University of Wellington and a PhD in water resource management from the University of Canterbury. Her PhD thesis involved examining the environmental drivers of toxic cyanobacterial blooms in New Zealand rivers. Tara’s research interests are broad and include higher education, racism, science, Indigenous knowledge and freshwater ecology. She currently holds a Marsden Fast-Start entitled Vision Mātauranga- is it past its’ used-by date? which will explore the impact and epistemological roots of the Vision Mātauranga policy in New Zealand’s research sector.