Rachel A. Spronken-Smith (born 1965) is a New Zealand professor of higher education and geographer at the University of Otago.
She has won a number of awards for her teaching, and consults on curriculum design in higher education.
Spronken-Smith completed a PhD titled Energetics and cooling in urban parks at the University of British Columbia.
[3][4] In 2013 the university launched a Graduate Research School, of which Spronken-Smith was dean for nearly ten years.
[3] Spronken-Smith has received a Fulbright scholar award in 2017 to compare doctoral education in New Zealand and the US, by visiting the University of California, Berkeley.