My LinkedIn bio says I am an “experienced and dedicated professional with a demonstrated history of building strong communities by promoting and generating (k)new knowledge about individual and community well-being in Indigenous populations.”

But, down to the essence, I am a daughter caring for my elderly mother who has dementia. I’m a mom of three grown children and I’m a grandma (Puna), a new role I love!

I come from a multi-cultural background, but identify as Native Hawaiian. I’m a licensed clinical social worker, therapist, researcher, and evaluator with personal and professional lived experience with trauma. While proficient in "walking in both worlds" (e.g., Hawaiian worldview, Western worldview), as a woman of color of a certain age - effects of cultural, historical trauma impact me every day. A seasoned social worker with 30 years of experience working with vulnerable populations, I never fully worked on my own trauma history until recently. When the pandemic hit, my usual coping skills (healthy and unhealthy) were not sufficient, and I hit a wall.

My journey of healing started with a mental health meltdown in 2020 and continues to this day. I credit the Higher Power, my therapist, Mindful Forgiveness, boundaries work, and the cultural practice of Ho‘oponopono with helping me to “set things to right” and heal. I received many gifts since the pandemic: awareness, a prescribed series of steps in the forgiveness process, a method to work through entrenched grievances, and my own courage to finally face and "feel the feels" that I dissociated from for years to gain inner peace and embrace my own worth and power.

Iʻve spent most of my professional career as a social worker working towards Hawaiian wellbeing and always striving for pono (righteousness) and inner peace.

I’m looking forward to talking story with everyone about cultural praxis and connecting. Aloha nui.