Saluting award-winning faculty
Several CSS faculty were honored for their excellence in teaching at the 2026 Mānoa Awards Ceremony on May 5. They are Subhashni Raj in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and Eirik Saethre in the Department of Anthropology, who both received Board of Regents Excellence in Teaching Awards; Lisa Vallin in the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, who was honored with the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching; Lolita Perez-Ayala of the School of Communication and Information, winner of the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for Graduate Teaching Assistants; and Ethan Caldwell in the Department of Ethnic Studies, who won a Presidential Citation for Meritorious Teaching.
Distinguished SCI alumni
The School of Communication and Information (SCI) has announced its 2026 Distinguished Alumni Awardees. They are:
Filifotu Va’ai, an alumna of the Communication MA Program. She is a vice president at Hawaiian Telcom, where she manages the company’s business sales channels.
Ben Weitz, who received an MA in Communicology (formerly known as Speech), the executive director of the Doris Duke Foundation’s Shangri La.
State Senator Jarrett Keohokalole, who earned a Journalism degree with the early intent of becoming a sportscaster.
Sunyeen “Sunny” Pai from Library and Information Science, who served nearly two decades at Kapiʻolani Community College as Digital Initiatives Librarian and in key accreditation and administrative roles.
Tina Sablan, who credits the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution for her trajectory as a journalist, public servant and community advocate.
See their full profiles at https://sci.manoa.hawaii.edu/distinguished-alumni/.
Live long and prosper
Maya Soetoro, distinguished educator and peacebuilder in the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, is the recipient of the LLAP Tribute Award from the Nimoy Knight Foundation. The honor recognizes her lifetime commitment to conflict transformation, intellectual humility, dialogue across cultural and ideological divides, and advancing peace and human dignity. See the full story at https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2026/02/17/soetoro-llap-tribute-award/.
Book news
Aya H. Kimura in the Department of Sociology has a new book out, Fermenting for the Future: Japanese Pickles and Microbial Foodways. Published by University of California Press, it focuses on tsukemono, pickles that have been an integral part of the Japanese diet for over a thousand years.
The Association for Asian American Studies has recognized Monisha Das Gupta’s book, All of Us or None, for her Outstanding Contribution of Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary Work. Gupta is chair and professor in the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and professor and undergraduate advisor for Ethnic Studies.
