Melinda Webber is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Melinda is the Director for the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity programme and a former Director of the Starpath Project.  Melinda has been a Fulbright/Nga Pae o te Maramatanga Indigenous Scholar and has published widely on the nature of ethnic identity development and iwi distinctiveness, examining the ways race, ethnicity, culture and identity impact the lives of young people, particularly Maori students . In 2016, Melinda was awarded a Royal Society Te Āparangi Marsden Fast-Start grant to examine the enduring identity traits of Ngāpuhi, and in 2017 Melinda was awarded a prestigious Rutherford Discovery Fellowship titled “Kia tu rangatira ai nga iwi Maori: Living, succeeding, and thriving as iwi Maori”