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Friday, May 11, 2018

Famous at Pew

We get weekly e-mail updates at work about the cool things our organization does.  This year they started doing little interviews to help get to know the staff better.  Each week they highlight someone from the different programs.  This is a few months old now (you'd only know that if you worked at Pew), but thought I'd share it.  The photo was taken inside the Kirimati Island Lagoon last year while I was attending the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures meeting.

Before you were at Pew, what did you do? I ran an NGO on Saipan called the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance and a community environmental coalition called Beautify CNMI (short for Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).  Mostly I organized beach cleanups, tree plantings, and other environmentally themed community events. 

What would be the most amazing adventure to go on? I’d like to visit Africa (climb Kilimanjaro) and Antarctica, so I can say I’ve been to all 7 continents.

What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home? Maug Lagoon in the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument and Kirimati Island in the Line Islands are the most isolated places I’ve ever been, but measured by distance it’s probably Australia, New Zealand, or Chile. In addition to Saipan and DC, I’ve lived in Florida, Massachusetts, Japan, and the UK, so I call several places home.

What book impacted you the most? I read ‘Stupid White Men’ by Michael Moore on an airplane between the UK and USA, the week before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.  I was already an activist at heart, but that book inspired me to get involved in local politics.  One campaign led to the next and here I am sitting at Pew.  And also Harry Potter.  I’m a Ravenclaw.

What fad or trend do you hope comes back?  Dad bods.

What do you wish you knew more about? Other languages.  I’ve tried and failed to learn French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chamorro over the years.

Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished? My mom.  She raised two energetic boys by herself, while working full time.

What are you absolutely determined to do? Get back to the islands.  I’ll take typhoons and volcanoes over bomb cyclones and polar vortexes any day.

Any parting wise words that you would share with the team? If you make friends with my wife at the Starbucks down the street, she might give you free coffee.