Rekha is an Otago Polytechnic Bachelor of Design (Fashion) graduate and is now employed as a Senior Lecturer in Fashion, teaching in areas such as fashion design projects, digital pattern making, and textiles. She finished her Masters of Fine Art (Design) from Otago Polytechnic in 2011 with distinction. Rekha practices design in a multicultural environment, working with concepts such as subjectivities and identities created through different fashion systems, drawing on both Eastern and Western sensibilities. Rekha's research is based on reflective studio practice incorporating critical making, writing and analysing. This is informed through reflection on both current fashion issues and how they relate to Eastern and Western methodologies and aesthetics. She aims to understand clothing as an extension of the wearer and its semiotic signification in the field of fashion and textiles. Rekha has experience working with international students. As a postgraduate supervisor with multicultural experience, she provides a wide perspective, to guide students on practice and theory, helping them to develop conceptual ideas into commercially viable projects. Ethnographic clothing is an area of special interest, especially from India where she was born and raised. Her current research is directed towards exploring methods used in designing ethnographic clothing and further developing and extending them to create near zero-waste fashion outcomes. She has actively assisted Dunedin Public Art Gallery with cultural events.

Simon has been a lecturer in School of Design at Otago Polytechnic since 2007 following many years within the fashion and clothing industry. Simon is a widely published author and in 2020 completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Dunedin School of Art with a focus on contemporary jewellery. He has since exhibited and won awards both nationally and internationally.

Tracy joined OP in 1998 and is currently a Principal Lecturer with The School of Design (Fashion). Tracy has several roles including teaching & learning across the School of Design, secondary school liaison, short course co-coordinator and Manager of the Dunedin Fashion Incubator Outreach program that supports new graduate fashion designers.
Tracy has a particular interest in sustainable models and social enterprise within the fashion industry and the implications for stakeholders and educators. Holding an MVA Textiles, Tracy enjoys the challenges of creating textiles that inspire, with an aim of reducing the impact on the environment.
In another life Tracy has worked for a large knitwear manufacturer and has run her own small knitwear design business. Tracy liaises closely with the fashion industry and the business community as part of her role as a fashion educator and Outreach coordinator.

Annette is currently employed as a Lecturer in Fashion with strengths in pattern making, construction and design. In 2008, she was part of the Dunedin Fashion Incubator (Dfi) team, delivering technical workshops around the region. Annette has considerable industry experience as she has worked for a number of top New Zealand designers and has her own successful fashion label, ‘Iris', which was selected for the iD Dunedin show in 2012.

Caro is Academic Leader for Communication and teaches across a range of courses including Interaction Design and Studio Projects. She supervises Masters and Doctoral students. She is involved in a wide range of creative, local community and regional development projects often working with collaborative student-staff teams, and local community groups, including museums. Caro was a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at SUNY Canton, in Upstate New York 2016-17 and is a winner of the AKO Aotearoa Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching Award (2014). Caro is Co-ordinator of DESIS Otago, a member of the international DESIS Network.

Art and design disciplines are often considered primarily useful for communicating concepts and ideas through sophisticated visual means. To this mix Caro adds social engagement strategies including user-focused design methods, and participatory and digital art practices to encourage new perspectives & behaviour change. Her research outcomes are varied – from museum practices, public experience design, to community change-making projects. She regularly collaborates and is developing a community of practice at OP around ‘project-based learning with communities’. In her international practice she draws upon New Zealand as a useful place to rethink theoretical strategies that contribute to identifying a contemporary experience of the local, timely in our post-COVID situation.

Professor Jane Venis is a multi-media artist, musician and writer. Her studio practice focuses on the absurdities and concerns of contemporary popular culture, which is expressed through the making of objects, video, sound and performance works. Recent solo installations have taken place in public galleries and museums in New Zealand and she has contributed to juried group exhibitions in the USA, South Korea, The UK and China. Her current writing links to her studio practice and focuses on how the creative practice of Japanese chindogu can be used to discuss the tension between art and design. Jane is an Academic Leader in the School of Design and teaches in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the College of Art and Design and Architecture and is the Editor of Scope Art and Design. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art and a PhD in Fine Arts from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Australia. Jane has Nine years' experience supervising postgraduate students. She supports students in their dissertation writing, coming from a position as a practising artist familiar with studio practice.

ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5571-6354

Machiko is a Senior Lecturer and the Academic Leader for Product Design and postgraduate studies. Machiko has a Master of Design from the University of Otago and also holds a Graduate Diploma in Psychology which she has found useful for informing her design practice. Prior to joining the Design School staff, she was Co-Director of Ooid Design. Sustainability and product design have been a recurring theme of Machiko's design career. She uses human-centred design strategies, design-thinking and design for sustainable behaviour. Her teaching and supervision emphasises partnerships with communities and local organisations.

Dr Margo Barton, Professor, Academic Leader for Fashion, Te Maru Pūmanawa, College of Creative Practice & Enterprise, teaches and supervises learners across a range of courses on the undergraduate and post graduate programmes in the School of Design.

A winner of the AKO Aotearoa Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching Award (2007), she is passionate about fashion education and establishing networks within the global fashion industry to benefit design students, the fashion industry and the wearer. Margo fosters international exchanges and collaborations for students and faculty, whether in person or by digital methods, and is a frequent exhibitor, curator, presenter and external examiner across the wider area of fashion and design.

Margo is the Creative Director and Chair of iD Dunedin Fashion, including the iD International Emerging Designer Awards, is the founder of the Contemporary Fashion Practices online fashion symposium exhibition and is a board member of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) and chair of the IFFTI membership committee.

She shows an ongoing commitment to expanding the definition of what ‘fashion’ is within learning and teaching at Otago Polytechnic, and to challenging and improving knowledge and interactions between emerging designers, the fashion industry and potential wearers - within learning and teaching, and research.

Stella is the postgraduate coordinator in the School of Design and a Principal Lecturer. Stella's research interests are textile craft and repair, bridging historical research with contemporary practice. Stella has a PhD on garment leather, and a Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Science (First Class Honours), both from the University of Otago. Stella has been a PhD examiner for RMIT in Melbourne and AUT in Auckland, and a Master's examiner for Massey University and AUT. She is on Otago Polytechnic's Ethics Committee, and heads the Cat B ethics committe for the School of Design. Stella believes that process is a key element of successful design and research and encourages students to look at the systems and theories that support development and understanding. Textile craft and theories of activism underpin her creative work - with results that include published/presented papers, exhibited work and published designs for hand knits.

ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3676-4331

Tania is a Principal Lecturer (Fashion) and since 1995 has worked as a self-employed fashion and textile designer, specialising in made-to-measure garments. She holds a Master of Design Enterprise, Postgraduate Certificate in Adaptive Design, Bachelor of Consumer & Applied Sciences, Bachelor of Design (Fashion), Diploma in Craft Design (Textiles), Certificate in Fashion and Design and a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Learning and Teaching. Her work has been shown in various group exhibitions, theatre performances and wearable art awards, her areas of interest include design and construction of user-centred garments, textile manipulation and surface decoration.

Tobias Danielmeier is an Associate Professor at the College of Art, Design and Architecture. His research and professional practice investigate the interface between industrial architecture and spaces for hospitality. His work focuses on how processes and production flows can be improved spatially, how buildings aid and optimise energy and water use, use of solar active and passive strategies, creation of positive and lasting visitor experiences, as well as place and corporate identity expressed through our built environment.
Many of his architectural designs have gained national and international awards in the disciplines of architecture, design and engineering.
Tobias is member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, Green Building Council, Architectural Designers of New Zealand, Bund Deutscher Baumeister, the Designers Institute of New Zealand, the Building Technology Educators’ Society, and Bund Deutscher Önologen. He regularly acts as juror on architecture and heritage competitions and is on the editorial board of the International Journal for Architecture, Arts and Applications. Tobias has also a wealth of postgraduate supervision.

ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8611-4564