Yvonne Underhill-Sem

Yvonne Jasmine Te Ruki Rangi o Tangaroa Underhill is a New Zealand Pacific development geographer.

Underhill went on to complete her BA in Human Geography and Anthropology and BA (Hons) in Human Geography at Victoria University of Wellington, PGDip in Population Studies and MA in Geography at University of Hawaii, and PhD in Geography at University of Waikato.

Career Underhill is a professor at the University of Auckland, where she teaches Pacific studies since 2021, Te Wānanga o Waipapa (Maori Studies and Pacific Studies) and is the acting co-head of school. There she was Director of Development Studies from 2007 to 2014.

From 2015 to 2018, she was deputy chair of the Inaugural Pacific Performance Based Review Fund, where she is appointed to be inaugural Deputy Moderator (Pacific) in 2026. She helped establish Oxfam in the Pacific in 2015, she served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Research Group for Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development between 2017 and 2019,

Awards and recognition In 2022, Underhill was awarded the Metge Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi for "excellence and relationship-building in the social science research community". In the 2024 New Year Honours, Underhill was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to tertiary education and Pacific development.

Underhill also received several other awards, including the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in 2010/11 and World University Network (WUN) Award in 2010.