Laha Seminar Series in Data Justice

The Laha Seminar Series is co-hosted by Chaminade University of Honolulu, the Pacific Islands Development Forum at the East-West Center, and the NSF ALL-SPICE INCLUDES Alliance. The purpose of the series is to share ideas around Data Justice with a general audience across the Pacific and the United States. Data Justice includes topics such as data sovereignty, (under)representation in datasets, data aggregation and suppression, data privacy, data ethics, culturally appropriate data collection and reporting, and broadening participation in data-related workforces and education programs.

I took over as primary organizer and host for the Laha Seminar Series in July 2024. Since then, I have:

• developed a partnership with the Pacific Islands Development Forum at the East-West Center to expand our audience and professionalize the webinar experience
• redesigned the seminar structure to align with Pacific Cultural Values, including recruiting Pacific voices to reflect and situate the talks for Pacific audiences
• created training opportunities for students and staff at Chaminade University of Honolulu to learn about organizing and hosting webinars