My name is Falahola Kinikini Kanongataa. I am a Pacific Islander descendant, born and raised in Tonga. Moved to Hawaii in 2018 and completed a BA in Political Science at BYU and an MPH at Hawaii Pacific University in 2023. I work with Papa Ola Lõkahi, serving as a Program Specialist with and ‘Ohana Center of Excellence for AANHPI Behavioral Health, I am honored to serve as a conduit for connection, support, and empowerment within our vibrant Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. My role is to foster meaningful relationships, facilitate access to resources, and cultivate a culture of understanding and inclusivity.

Tenly Pau Biggs, MSW, LMSW, is the Deputy Director at the Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She is coordinating SAMHSA’s efforts to reduce disparities in mental and substance use disorders across racial, ethnic, LGBTQ+ and other underserved populations.

She is a member of a workgroup dedicated to implementing the HHS response to the Memorandum on Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in the United States.

Prior to joining OBHE, she was the Grants Coordinator for the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and the lead for the disparity impact statement and strategy (DIS) work pertaining to the access, service use, and behavioral health outcomes of discretionary grants at SAMHSA.

Tenly was the former primary and behavioral health care integration lead for CMHS grant programs. Previously at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health, Tenly was the mental health lead and provided technical assistance on achieving health equity to health plans, health systems and networks, hospitals, and primary care providers. She also updated CMS’ Disparity Impact Statement for health plans and providers review their disparities data and create an action and implementation plan to close the identified gaps.

Tenly is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Niger (West Africa). She continues to build upon her areas of interest in leadership, management, and training opportunities within the AAPI communities. She is a licensed social worker in Maryland and received her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Aukahi Austin Seabury, PhD is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and the Executive Director of I Ola Lāhui, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides behavioral health services to medically underserved Native Hawaiian and rural communities throughout the state with its team of providers and psychology training program. She uses a culturally-minded integrated behavioral health approach with patients with complex chronic disease conditions and significant economic and social disadvantages.

Dr. Austin Seabury provides training to health providers in the use of culturally-minded, evidence-based practices and works as a consultant providing facilitation, strategic planning, team building, training, and evaluation services to Native Hawaiian health and education organizations.

Thu Quach, Ph.D., has worked in public health and health care for 25+ years. Her research, service, and advocacy work have been grounded in her own lived experience as a Vietnam refugee and the struggles her family faced in the health care system.  
 
Dr. Quach is the President of Asian Health Services (AHS), a federally qualified health center in Oakland serving 50,000 patients in English and 14 languages. She is involved in research and policy efforts to promote health equity, emphasizing the importance of language justice and data disaggregation. She has conducted ground-breaking research in worker’s health and safety for nail and hair salon workers to inform policy and practice. She has expanded culturally competent mental health services at AHS.  In recent years, Dr. Quach has been leading the organization in addressing racial disparities in COVID-19, including starting up culturally and linguistically competent community testing sites, contact tracing targeting Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), and vaccination efforts. In addition, she has been conducting groundbreaking research on COVID-19 impacts on the AAPI population and launched efforts to collect stories of language and digital barriers faced by the AAPI community during the pandemic. Her recent work has focused on responding to anti-Asian violence and addressing mental health needs for survivors. 
 
Dr. Quach received her Bachelor of Arts at UC Berkeley, her Masters in Public Health at UCLA and her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at UC Berkeley.  

Agnes Respicio Malate, was born in the Philippines and grew up in the heart of Waipahu and ‘Ewa Plantation Town. She is the director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Agnes serves on the board of The Legal Clinic, Ethnic Education Hawai‘i, and Friends of ’Imi Hoʻola.

Her work has focused on providing opportunities for Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Filipinos, and others from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue a higher education and a career in health.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, she and a group of volunteers organized to address the disparate impact of COVID-19 on the Filipino community and currently serves as co-chair of FilCom CARES. Through her experience serving the community during the pandemic and being the patient advocate and interpreter for her parents, she appreciates how integral cultural and language are to health and wellbeing.

Dr. Amefil (Amy) Agbayani is an Emeritus Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Diversity and Equity at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Agbayani was born in the Philippines and received her education from the University of the Philippines, East-West Center, and the University of Hawai’i.

Amefil “Amy” Agbayani has dedicated her life to social justice and diversity since coming to Hawai‘i in the 1960s. She helped establish UH Mānoa’s office for SEED, or Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity; lobbied for immigrants’ rights; and created more opportunities for students who were underrepresented on campus. She is a former Chair of the Hawai’i Civil Rights Commission, and conducts research on AA and NHPIs in higher education.

She retired from her day job in 2016, but UH’s emeritus assistant vice chancellor for SEED is still active.

She currently serves on the Pamantasan Council, a group that addresses the representation and success of Filipinos on all UH campuses; is a board member of the Patsy T. Mink PAC, which supports pro-choice Democratic women for elected offices; is a board member of The Legal Clinic, which provides free legal services to immigrants; and serves on President Joe Biden’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Makani was raised on the island of Lanaʻi. He was taught from an early age, the importance of culture and our relationship with Akua, higher power, the ‘āina, the land, and Na Poʻe Kanaka, the people. And the important balance of all to achieve Mauli Ola, the breath of life and power of healing.

Throughout High School and into his college years, he helped mentor and work with at-risk teens at his Mother’s Youth Center on the island of Lanaʻi, and also with Local and National Native organizations, Na Pua Noʻeau, Pacific American foundation, and The Native Hawaiian Education Association. He taught & shared the importance of cultural knowledge, practices and concepts of traditional health, wellness & fitness.

He combined that with his knowledge of traditional healing practices taught to him by his Grandmother who was a nurse and cultural practitioner. He added his University studies in Exercise science, his study of hula, with Halau O Na Pua Kukui, his studies in Health & Wellness from Hawaiʻi College of Health Sciences and his cultural knowledge to help create cultural activities programs and curriculum for various Hotels & Resorts throughout Hawaiʻi. He created and developed the 1st Hawaiian based health & fitness programs for the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hale Koa Hotel, and Sheraton Resorts.

Makani is currently the Director of Cultural Education and a Cultural Practitioner at Hoʻokuola Pain Management clinic & Malama Recovery Services at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Poʻo (Director) of the Kakoʻo Council at the Kalanihoʻokaha Traditional Hawaiian Healing Center. He is also a curriculum writer for the Hoʻokuola Pain Management Clinic, Kealaokekoa & Malama Recovery substance abuse clinic, where he developed a successful, culturally based addiction recovery curriculum.

Makani prides himself on making sure everything he does personally and professionally is culturally based and balanced with traditional knowledge and contemporary thought. His main Kuleana, responsibility gifted to him by his Kupuna… is to preserve, perpetuate and practice traditional, Native health, wellness & healing.