Serenah died in December last year. Literacy Aotearoa provided us with this tribute:

Serenah’s contribution is recognised in the disciplines of adult literacy, financial capability, social development and iwi Māori. She was a longtime supporter and advisor in lifting capability and educational outcomes for Māori and Pasifika in community education. She provided input through provider experiences that helped inform the ACE professional tools such as the ACE Learner Outcomes Tool, Teaching Standards, Learner Pathways, and Quality Assurance.

Serenah was a governance member and Chair of Te Koruru, the governance body for Literacy Aotearoa, a regular attendee and active participant at the ACE Hui Fono and ACE Conference, and ACE professional development workshops where she demonstrated her commitment to lifelong learning.

Through her organisation and as Manager of The Learning Centre, Whānau Family Support Services Trust, she worked tirelessly in her Lower Hutt community. One of her greatest skills was in needs analysis, seeing a learning gap and finding a way to fill it. She set up a support group for grandparents caring for children whose parents were affected by methamphetamine using education as the vehicle to help deal with the situation family members were facing. More recently, it was not surprising to see Serenah out in the community delivering food to families affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, and always with an element of education embedded to ensure whānau were taking lessons from being home and continuing their learning contextualised in the “bubble” classroom.

Serenah was ACE Aotearoa Tangata Whenua Member of the Year in 2020.