Dr Rachel McKee is an Associate Professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Professional experience working as a sign language interpreter in NZ and USA led to an academic career in applied sign linguistics. Along with Dr David McKee, Rachel has establishing training programmes for sign language interpreters (at AUT), NZSL teacher training, and NZSL as a language at Victoria University of Wellington. Her research has spanned documentation of NZSL (lexicon and grammar), sociolinguistic variation, NZSL teaching and learning, interpreting studies, and language policy and planning issues. Rachel was the founding president of the Sign Language Interpreters Association of NZ and a member of the inaugural NZSL Board which advises government on implementation of the NZSL Act 2006. Growing up in the 1960s-70s next door to the University of Waikato, Rachel was exposed to seminal leaders and educational activities in the early revitalisation of Te Reo Māori. This, and witnessing the Deaf Pride movement in the USA in the 1980s, were formative to her understanding that the social status of Deaf people as a linguistic minority in Aotearoa could be raised through critical language awareness, an overarching goal that motivates her contribution as a hearing ally of the NZSL community. ​