HELLO

My personal story as the daughter of Filipino immigrants and my experiences as a professional in the marketing and design field fuel my commitment to helping organizations create meaningful social impact. My parents migrated to Hawaiʻi for a better life, working in sugar plantation fields for low wages, sending money back home to family in the Philippines. I am also the great-granddaughter of Sakadas, Filipino labor contractors brought to Hawaiʻi to work in the sugar cane fields in Waialua on the island of Oʻahu. Their story of migrant labor instilled in me humility, resilience, empathy, and a deep understanding of how personal experiences are shaped by broader social and economic contexts.

My passion for communications and design began at the age of five while growing up in a small sugar plantation town on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. Summers were spent working at my mom’s small Filipino grocery store, where I stocked shelves and created signs to pass the time. Using the blank sides of cardboard cigarette boxes, I designed hand-drawn store signs, sparking a lifelong love for visual communication. As a child, I eagerly participated in poster contests and traced logos from vinyl albums and cassette covers of my favorite bands. Art, design, and storytelling have been lifelong passions, though I wouldn’t fully realize they were my calling until years later.

While enrolled in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Communications program, I knew marketing and storytelling would be the foundation of my career. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, I started in public relations at the broadcast monitoring firm Dateline Media. My career then led me into the video production field at ʻŌlelo Community Media, where I developed a deeper appreciation for community-driven storytelling. I later worked as a producer for the University of Hawaiʻi Globalization Research Center, where I honed my video editing skills, designing title credits with kinetic typography and motion graphics. My growing love for visual storytelling led me to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design at UH Mānoa.

My design career launched at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, where I designed the Singgalot (Ties That Bind) exhibition—an exploration of the Filipino American experience from colonial subjects to U.S. citizens. This project reinforced the profound impact of visual storytelling and its ability to connect people to history and culture.

In 2006, I relocated to Seattle and worked at the Museum of Flight, where I gained experience developing exhibitions and educational marketing materials. My career continued to evolve, leading me to the University of Washington College of Arts & Sciences, where I spent nearly a decade as Associate Creative Director, overseeing brand strategy, marketing campaigns, and visual storytelling efforts to drive student recruitment and fundraising initiatives.

I most recently served as Senior Director of Marketing & Development at Ada Developers Academy, leading brand storytelling, marketing strategy, and revenue-driving campaigns for a nonprofit that trains women and non-binary individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in software development. Currently, as the Director of Marketing & Development at ʻŌlelo Community Media, I lead strategic marketing efforts, sponsorship development, and brand engagement, including the Youth Xchange Student Video Awards, an event celebrating student storytelling and media literacy with over 550 attendees. Through these roles, I have worked at the intersection of creative branding, marketing, public relations, and fundraising, helping mission-driven organizations expand their reach and inspire action.

With a career spanning graphic design, video production, marketing strategy, and nonprofit development, my work is rooted in the power of storytelling to create impact. I am passionate about using visual and narrative storytelling to elevate brands, engage communities, and drive positive social change.