Speakers & Presenters
Keynote Speakers
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Jessica Domingo
Jessica is a Deputy Public Defender at the Office of the Public Defender’s Honolulu office. She represents indigent clients who are charged with felony criminal offenses. Jessica received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2008 and a J.D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law in 2011. Prior to joining the Office of the Public Defender, she served as the Judicial Assistant to ret. Supreme Court Associate Justice Simeon R. Acoba, Jr. She is a 2016 Hawaii State Bar Association Leadership Institute Fellow. Jessica served as president of the Hawaii Filipino Lawyers Association and is currently an Oahu Director for the Hawaii State Bar Association and member of the MoveMeHawaii Committee.
Melinda
Tria Kerkvliet
Melinda Tria Kerkvliet took graduate courses in history at the University of the
Philippines, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Hawaii-Manoa. Her Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Hawaii, Manila Workers’ Unions, 1900-1950,
was published in 1992. Her research interest includes Vietnamese workers and the history of the Filipinos in Hawaii. In 2002 she published Unbending Cane, Pablo Manlapit, A Labor Leader in Hawai’i. She is currently writing a book on the anti-eviction struggle in the 1970s of the Filipino residents at Ota Camp, Waipahu, Hawaii. Kerkvliet was also a teacher for six years at two secondary schools and two universities. In 1972 she worked for and later became the director of Operation Manong (now Office of Multicultural Student Services) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also enjoys biking and line dancing.
Panelists
Charlene
Bumanglag
Dr. Charlene Bumanglag, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Hawai‘i John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). She is a socio-behavioral research scientist with general research and teaching interests in health equity for sexual, and gender minority populations from racial/ ethnic backgrounds. Prior to becoming a faculty member in JABSOM, she conducted HIV health disparities research among transgender populations in the Philippines and Thailand, where she held visiting assistant professor and postdoctoral research fellow positions, respectively. Her scholarly works have been published in venues such as the American Journal of Public Health, and the World Health Organization. Locally, she serves in the Health Services Research workgroup, and the Commission on Racism and Bias. Dr. Bumanglag’s research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Donnie Juan
Born in North Carolina in 1973, his parents are Ernesto and LeilaniJuan, both of whom were born and raised in the Philippines. His mother graduated from the University of the Philippines and continued her studies at Columbia University. His father graduated from Adamson University and continued his studies at Central Michigan University. They both are retired and reside in Hawaii travelling across the world. He has three brothers, Ernest, Dave, and Mike, all of whom reside in Indiana, and one sister, Melina, who
resides in Hawaii.
His parents served in the U.S. Army for over 34 years and were primarily stationed in Europe half of that time thus leading Donnie to attend high school in Germany. He attended a private business university in Rhode Island under a full tuition scholarship and graduated with his Associates of Science in Computer Business Applications, Summa Cum Laude in 1993, and his Bachelors of Science in Accounting, Cum Laude in 1995. Upon graduation, he began employment with the international accounting firm KPMG and travelling throughout the New England area servicing clients until
1998. He continued his accounting career as a manager with a regional-sized firm in Indiana with clients for their auditing as well as restructuring medium-sized businesses until 2001.
In 2001, he applied to law school at Indiana University, obtained his
Doctor of Jurisprudence in May 2004, relocated to Hawaii, and passed the Hawaii bar exam in November 2004. He is a licensed and practicing CPA and an attorney having his own law and CPA
practices.
Donnie has been the Executive Director for The Filipino Community
Center since August 2014.
Agnes
Respicio Malate
Agnes Respicio Malate, PhD, was born in the Philippines and grew up in the heart
of Waipahu and ‘Ewa Plantation Town. She enjoyed the nurturance of her extended Filipino family that maintained ties to cultural roots while encouraging her to reach for a better life through education. Dr. Malate earned her BA in political science and journalism at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and MEd and PhD in Educational Foundations. Her dissertation revealed the community and family factors
that contribute to the success of students who are first in their families to graduate from college. She is the director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program and volunteers for The Legal Clinic, Ethnic Education Hawai‘i, and ‘Ewa Clean and Green
Patrol. Dr. Malate has collaborated with health and community leaders, UH campuses throughout the state, public schools, and community-based entities on innovative approaches to student learning and community engagement.
Grace
Alvaro Caligtan
Grace Alvaro Caligtan (pronouns: she/her, and they/them) serves both as an adjunct Public Health faculty at Hawaii Pacific University, teaching Sexuality in Health and Society, while working at Planned Parenthood in the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands as a Community Outreach Educator. Based in Honolulu, they co-facilitate the O'ahu Teen Council and provide training for family programs that strengthen parent-child connection and family communication on sexual health. As a cultural worker and writer, birth worker and former midwife under supervision, Grace strives to weave and unite communities in this time of racial reckoning and calls for reproductive justice. In her private time, Grace has been excelling in community care, through finding ways to dance, paint, and write on zoom with other Pin@y kindreds. They are currently writing a memoir on love and community during Corona Virus.
Paola Rodelas
Paola Rodelas is a Communications and Community Organizer with UNITE HERE Local 5, a labor union that represents over 12,000 hospitality, healthcare, and food service workers in the state of Hawai'i. Paola's organizing work is fueled by her personal experience growing up in as an Filipinx immigrant woman from a working-class family. She is proud to work for an organization that is led by immigrant working women. Since working at Local 5, Paola has organized around affordable housing, immigration, economic justice, and more.
Tiffany Marie S. Salvador
Tiffany Marie Salvador has a passion for serving the community, and currently works at Child and Family Service. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Hawaii Pacific University in December 2014 and recently graduated with her Master of Social Work from Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work at University of Hawaii at Manoa last year. During her time in graduate school, Tiffany served as Membership Coordinator of Phi Alpha Nu Sigma Honor Society and Historian of Timpuyog Organization. Tiffany has been an active member of Filipino Junior Chamber of Commerce (FJC) since 2017. She served as Executive Vice President from 2018-2019, and is currently serving as President. In 2018, she received the JCI Hawaii “Most Outstanding Member” John H. Armbruster Memorial Award and the FJC “Outstanding Board Member” Award. In addition, she is also a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Hawaii Chapter and Filipino Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. In her free time, Tiffany enjoys baking, cooking, listening to music, and watching movies on Netflix.
Moderator
Adam Kolokahiki Halemano, Jr. is the Institutional Assessment Specialist with the Office of Planning, Policy, and Assessment at Leeward Community College. Adam is of Filipino and Hawaiian descent with strong interest in the perpetuation of his ancestral lineage.
Adam Halemano
Student Panelists
Phillippe Rivera
Fernandez-Brennan
Phillippe Rivera Fernandez-Brennan was born in Honolulu and raised in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu where he attended K-12 public schools. He graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a BS in civil and environmental engineering. After 7 years as an engineer, he transitioned into education as a participant in the ethnomathematics and STEM institute under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Furuto, professor of mathematics education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He continued his education at UH Mānoa and received his post-baccalaureate certificate in
secondary education in mathematics, MEd in Curriculum Studies in STEMSS (STEM, Social
Science, Sense of Place) and is currently a student in the PhD in Education: Curriculum and Instruction program. His current research interests include critical race theory, queer theory, ethnomathematics, social justice education, mathematics achievement, place-based education, identity formation and curricular design. He has taught in public schools for the past 7 years. He taught mathematics at Waiʻanae High School and is currently the mathematics department head and teaches math and science at Hālau Kū Māna, a Hawaiian-focused public charter school in Makiki, Oʻahu.
Czeara Rae
Diego Santos
Hi! My name is Czeara Rae Diego Santos, and I was born and raised on the island of Maui. My
parents moved to Hawaiʻi from the Philippines, therefore I am a 2nd generation immigrant to
the U.S. I graduated class of 2018 at Maui High School, and now attend the University of
Hawaiʻi at Manoa. I’m majoring in elementary and early childhood education, and plan to
graduate in the spring of 2022. My plans after graduation will be to teach in a Hawaiʻi public
elementary school.
Nicole Alia Salis Reyes was born and mostly raised on different parts of the island of Oʻahu. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational
Administration and serves as a Co-Chair of the Tinalak Filipino Education Advisory Council in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Informed by critical race theories, Indigenous epistemologies, and other critical and assets-based perspectives, her research
explores how Indigenous (especially Kānaka ʻŌiwi) communities and communities of color define postsecondary success for themselves along with the responsibilities that higher
education institutions have in supporting those various forms of success. Salis Reyesʻs work has been published in a variety of international and local journals, including the American Educational Research Journal, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Educational Perspectives, and Hūlili: Multidisciplinary
Research on Hawaiian Well-Being. Her work has also been recognized recently with awards from the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge
Community of Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Moderator
Nicole Alia
Salis Reyes
Sabrina
Suluai-Mahuka
Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka serves as a Secondary Education Teacher for the American Samoa
Department of Education (ASDOE). For the past nine years, Sabrina has taught English to English Language Learners from all over the island and averages about 100 students per academic year.
In addition, Sabrina also acts as an advisor and lecturer for the University of Hawaii at Manoa
PACMED program for the Pacific Region. In her role as PACMED instructor Sabrina facilitates
tertiary courses with UH Manoa graduate students in American Samoa, Hawaii, and the
Republic of Marshall Islands.
To further demonstrate her leadership, Sabrina earned the title of Nobel Educator of Distinctionwith the National Society of High School Scholar, bestowed membership with the Phi Lambda Theta Honor Society, and represented American Samoa at the 2019 Young Pacific Leaders program. Simultaneously, Sabrina is the founder for the community service project, Finafinau,
which was founded in 2017 and focuses on youth advocacy for the environment. In this
capacity, she works with over 50 youth each year to coordinate coast clean ups, tree planting, and school outreach visits, with the hope to promote environmental conservation and resilience. This past March, Sabrina won the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators from the US Environmental Projection Agency for all of Region 9. In addition, Sabrina was recently named the Territorial Teacher of the Year for American Samoa.
From the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Sabrina received a Bachelor of Education degree in Elementary Education in 2014 and also earned a Master of Education in Curriculum Studies in 2016. Within the same university, Sabrina is currently pursuing her PhD in Learning Technology and Design.
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