I recently completed my PhD in Philosophy at the Australian National University and have MAs in philosophy from Victoria University of Wellington and Washington University in St. Louis. I go by "Nicky," and my Māori friends and family call me "Nīkora." Having completed my doctoral research, I'm excited about professional opportunities in academia, advocacy, and public policy. 

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I specialize in applied social and political philosophy, especially in the areas of wellbeing, public policy, and disability, and have a particular interest in the cultural basis of public policy and whether it accords with the values of Indigenous peoples. My dissertation is about government approaches to measuring and promoting wellbeing, especially the systems of measuring national wellbeing often called “wellbeing frameworks.” Wellbeing frameworks have the potential to improve our policymaking processes by moving our national standards of economic and social progress away from consumption and growth and towards people's quality of life. However, they face significant challenges: they are in danger of being politically illegitimate, neglecting the wellbeing of future generations, and excluding the views on wellbeing of important parts of the population, especially Indigenous peoples. My dissertation finds ways for wellbeing frameworks to accord with what populations themselves value for their wellbeing, to function well in societies with a range of views of wellbeing, especially those of Indigenous peoples, and to work well to promote the wellbeing of future generations.

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Before my PhD, I specialized in ethics and metaethics, and published on moral bioenhancement, Mill's metaethics, utilitarianism, and metaethics and love. I’ve now begun publishing my doctoral research, and my paper “An Account of Wellbeing for Wellbeing Frameworks” is forthcoming in the journal Ergo. I also have an article on Australia's wellbeing framework forthcoming in the Australian Journal of Social Issues, written with Kate Sollis (Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania) and Paul Campbell (Psychology, ANU).

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Before beginning university, I founded and managed Te Whiti-o-Rongomai House, which provided supported accommodation for homeless people, and for four years lived a subsistence lifestyle in a hut in the bush in Hokianga, New Zealand. I was part of a local community group there that offered support and accommodation to people in need, and I organized and ran weekend outdoor camps for at-risk young people. While in Hokianga I gained certificates in Māori studies and in horticulture at the small local branch of a technical institute.

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For Māori, where you and your people are from is more important than what you do for a living. On my mother's side, my family is from the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, and before that from England and Ireland. On my father's side, my family is of the Māori tribe Ngāi Tahu and the subtribe Kāti Kuri, of Kaikōura on the East Coast of the South Island, and from England and Ireland. The photos on this website are of Kaikōura. It's a very good place to walk in the mountains or go to sea to see whales, dolphins, albatrosses, seals, and penguins. 

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I am very lucky to be married to a wonderful woman called Hannah Simpson, from Wellington, New Zealand. I like to go to wild places when I can, and have done quite a lot of alpine trekking. I very much like seeing and meeting wild animals. The best animals are penguins.