Kathryn Waddell Takara, born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, has recently retired as an Associate Professor from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, Interdisciplinary Studies Program. She also taught in the Ethnic Studies Department, where she developed courses in African American and African politics, history, literature, and culture beginning in 1971. 

Her poetry has been published in a variety of publications including Interdisciplinary Studies Humanities Journal, Writing Macao (China), Kudzu, Honolulu Stories, Words Upon the Waters, The African Journal of New Poetry, Arkansas Review, Africa Literary Journal, Julie Mango Press, Poetry Motel, Peace & Policy, From Totems to Hip Hop, Bamboo Ridge, Rainbird, Konch, Kaimana, Hawai`i Review, Chaminade Literary Review, Ramrod, O`ahu Review, Pleiades, All She Wrote: Hawai`i Women’s Voices, and World of Poetry, an anthology, Her essays have appeared in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Journal, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Social Process In Hawai`i, The Black Scholar, The Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, and Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, The Western Journal of Black Studies, The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Magazine, I Ka Huliau, and Valley Voices. 

Recipient of the Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award and a two-time Fulbright Fellow, Takara holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.A. in French and has taught, advised, and mentored innumerable students. She has read and performed her poetry and lectured extensively in universities, colleges, schools, and community and military events throughout the Hawaiian Islands, the Continental United States of America and in Beijing and Qingdao, China. Takara organized and coordinated several national and international conferences at the University of Hawai`i and in Honolulu. She has also appeared on a variety of television shows, in interviews and documentaries through the years. She enjoys her family, friends, pets, meditation, qi gong, garden, raising orchids and interior design. 

Dr. Takara is the daughter of pioneer black veterinarian, author, and world famous Buffalo Soldier, Dr. Wiliam H. Waddell, IV, VMD (1908-2007).