Rate My Professor Rosalina Richards

Professor Rosalina (Rose) Richards, a Samoan/English academic, holds a BSc, PGDipSci, MSc, and PhD (2007) from the University of Otago, with her doctoral thesis on Predictors of Physical Activity Participation During Adolescence and Young Adulthood. Her background is in behavioural psychology and public health. She currently serves as Professor and Associate Dean (Pacific) in the Division of Health Sciences, contributing to the strategic direction of the Division and participating in a network of Pacific leaders across the university. Her career history includes Acting Director of the Pacific Development Office, Deputy Director of Va'a o Tautai – Centre for Pacific Health, former Co-Director of the Coastal Peoples: Southern Skies Centre for Research Excellence, former Director of the Centre for Pacific Health, and former Co-Director of the Cancer Society Social and Behavioural Research Unit. She teaches Pacific health across various health professional programmes and research contexts.

Professor Richards specializes in Pacific health research, focusing on sleep health among Pacific families and how connections with the ocean shape Pacific wellbeing and identity. She is Principal Investigator on a Health Research Council Pacific project about sleep health in Pacific families and contributes to the Big Data team of the Better Start National Science Challenge. Her publications cover physical activity, nutrition, tobacco control, and supportive cancer care, with over 1,474 citations noted on Google Scholar. Key publications include "A Tivaivai research framework: A strengths-based quantitative approach to Pacific health research" (2025), "Why go back?: Advantages and challenges of longitudinal qualitative research in social pharmacy, and recommendations for social pharmacy researchers" (2025), "Does access to medicines differ from access to healthcare?" (2025), "The measurement of young children’s nocturnal sleep health and the development of the Perception of Infant and Toddler Sleep Scale (PoITSS)" (2024), and "Sleep and parenting in ethnically diverse Pacific families in New Zealand" (2022). She collaborates with Pacific colleagues across disciplines including Dentistry, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Medicine, and Radiation Therapy, supports early and mid-career Pacific and Māori health researchers, and contributes to local and national Pacific community collectives that advance community aspirations.