I am an Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Outside of my work at the College, I am very active in the Hawaiian music community. I am the webmaster of Nahenahe.net, a Hawaiian music news site, and am also I a voting member of both the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences ("Grammy Awards") and the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts ("Na Hoku Hanohano Awards").

I attended Kihei Elementary and St. Anthony High School on Maui. Our family moved to Hilo in 1994 when I enrolled at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. I received a Bachelor of Arts in Hawaiian Studies in 1999, and Master of Arts in Hawaiian Language and Literature in 2003, both from UH-Hilo. In between those two I received e a graduate certificate in Telecommunications and Information Resource Management from UH-Mānoa (2000). I'm currently a Ph.d. candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Call me schizophrenic, call me versatile, call me ADHD. Just don't call me late for dinner.