Jacinta Galea’i, PhD

Executive Director

Jacinta S. Galea’i (she/her) was the former SPDC Board President and recently transitioned to serve as the first Executive Director of the organization. As a lifelong educator, she has taught composition, creative writing, Pacific Literature, and Samoan culture and language in higher education and high school. She is committed to social justice, equity, and the preservation of native language and culture, Samoan, and other indigenous languages and cultures of the Pacific and U.S. She is a member of the Oregon Pacific Islander Coalition and the Pacific Islander Coalition of Multnomah County. She received her PhD from the University of Hawai’i-Manoa and undergraduate degree from the University of Washington. She has served as the Communications Director for former Governor Togiola T.A. Tulafono of American Samoa and the Interim Director Designee of the American Samoa Department of Education. She now lives on Cowlitz and Chinook lands in Washington and works and is a member of Ekalesia Samoa CCCAS located on Multnomah lands in Portland, Oregon. 

Ph.D. in English, University of Hawai’i, 2005

M.A. in English Composition and Rhetoric, University of Hawai’i, 2000

B.A. in English, University of Washington, 1989