Karen Below

Masters | Maori Researcher & Clinical Specialist | Occupational Therapist | Traumatic Brain Injury Specialist | Health Equity Advocate | Evolution Healthcare

Karen Below brings together two worlds that rarely appear in the same professional practice: rigorous clinical expertise in traumatic brain injury and concussion, and deep grounding in Rongoa Maori and Kaupapa Maori research. As an Occupational Therapist and clinical specialist at Evolution Healthcare, she has built a practice that takes both dimensions seriously, because the evidence tells her they cannot be separated if care is going to work for Maori patients.

Her iwi roots span Te Arawa, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Wai, and He Hamoa, and she brings that whakapapa connection into the clinical and research work she does. Her Masters-level research expertise in Kaupapa Maori methodologies means she understands not just how to conduct research within Maori contexts but how Indigenous frameworks can and should shape the questions researchers ask and the way findings are understood and used.

At academyEX, she brings that combination of clinical depth and cultural intelligence to leaders working across health and organisational contexts, helping them understand what genuinely equitable practice looks like, and what it requires.