Dr Pushpa Wood

Pushpa Wood is director, Financial Education and Research Centre at Massey University.

Pushpa Wood is director of the Financial Education and Research Centre at Massey University.

Pushpa has a long history of adult and financial literacy advocacy. She has previously worked as the education manager at the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income. Pushpa has worked across the school, tertiary, and industry sectors to improve adult literacy and financial literacy, and in the past has contributed to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s project advisory groups developing literacy and numeracy standards, reviewing financial literacy unit standards, and developing qualifications for the adult literacy sector. She is also the current chairperson of the Adult Literacy Practitioners’ Association, a national body that works across tertiary sector to support practitioners in the sector.

Pushpa has extensive experience in developing teaching and learning resources, training and development, and stakeholder relationship. Pushpa is regarded one of the key academics involved in developing resources for financial literacy and building capability of financial literacy educators.

Her research interests include identifying trigger points that motivate people to change their financial behaviour, preparedness of women in planning their future, and testing culturally appropriate evaluation tools. She is currently involved a collaborative research project with University of British Columbia.

Pushpa also specialises in Hindi language and literature and her PhD thesis combined her Hindi language expertise with the religious dimensions of medieval India. She acts as an expert witness for the crown in the area of Indian culture, customs, and beliefs.

For more details, see Dr Wood's profile.