Hoʻokele 2020: Speakers
We are humbled and excited to feature inspiring Indigenous wāhine at this year's Hoʻokele Naʻauao. The biographies below provide a glimpse into the expansiveness and importance of their work, all of which address aspects of "Activation of Kaiāulu."
Abigail Echo-HawkTuesday, November 10 @ 10am HST
Abigail Echo-Hawk, MA (Pawnee), was born in the heart of Alaska where she was raised with the traditional values of giving, respect for all, and love. As the Director of Urban Indian Health Institute and Chief Research Officer of Seattle Indian Health Board, Abigail works to engage community partners, conduct research and evaluation, and build capacity for Native organizations. In these roles, she also works to identify health research priorities and ensure research is done in a manner that respects tribal sovereignty and is culturally appropriate. |
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Sofia LeungMonday, November 9 @ 12pm HST
Sofia Leung (she/her) is a librarian, facilitator, and educator working towards fulfilling the promise of social justice in libraries and higher education. She is a founding editor at up//root: a we here publication, and a facilitator for the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Immersion Program. She is the co-editor of Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies Through Critical Race Theory (MIT Press), which will be available in April 2021. She holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science and a Master’s in Public Administration, both from the University of Washington in Seattle, and her B.A. in English from Barnard College. |
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Sandra LittletreeMonday, November 9 @ 9am HST
Sandra Littletree is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington Information School. Her research interests lie at the intersections of Indigenous systems of knowledge and librarianship. She is a past president of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and was the Program Manager of Knowledge River at the University of Arizona from 2009-2012. She currently lives in Olympia, WA, and is originally from the Four Corners region of New Mexico. She is a descendent of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and is a citizen of the Navajo Nation (Diné). |
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Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-LozadaTuesday, November 10 @ 12pm HST
Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada is the Adult Services Assistant Manager at the Palos Verdes Library District in Southern California. She is the current Executive Director and a Past President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA). In 2012, Lessa co-authored the book Hawaiians in Los Angeles from Arcadia Press. Much of her professional work focuses on services to youth and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in libraries, librarianship, and her local community. She lives in San Pedro, California with her poet husband, Chrisitan Hanz Lozada and their menagerie of pets. |
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