Moana Palelei HoChing Joins WESTAF
Recently, WESTAF sent out an email to select individuals on Utahn Moana Palelei HoChing joining the WESTAF team. This is an incredible opportunity for Moana and we are thrilled to hear this news. You can read the full release that was sent to us here:
WESTAF is excited to welcome Moana Palelei HoChing as its new senior policy associate, a consulting role that manages key public policy and advocacy programs of the Alliances, Advocacy, and Public Policy division and provides counsel to the director of impact and public policy. Moana will contribute to WESTAF’s research and policy communications, as well as work with our grassroots advocacy network, engaging with a range of arts and cultural policy issues through an equity lens.
Moana is a multidisciplinary artist, technologist, and private consultant. She is a fierce advocate for Indigenous affairs and has consulted on projects in Kenya; Waikato, Aotearoa; New Orleans; New York; Las Vegas; Denver; and throughout Indian Country. Moana founded Pasifika First Fridays, a Salt Lake City-based art pop-up space dedicated to celebrating Pacific Islander artists and art, and has her own production company, Crazyhorse Productions.
Moana is an alumna of WESTAF’s Emerging Leaders of Color program (2018 cohort) and currently serves as vice chair of the Zoo, Arts, and Park (ZAP) Program Tier 1 Board, where she assists in directing $14.3 million of Utah taxpayer dollars to 22 arts and cultural nonprofits, as well as three zoos throughout the Salt Lake Valley. She previously served as the assistant director of educational outreach of the Honoring Nations program at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Moana has also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA and ambassador of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAPPI) (Obama administration).
Moana is a proud alumna of the National Pacific American Leadership Institute (NAPALI), as well as Harvard University’s Administrative Fellowship Program (AFP). As an undergrad, she received the Native American Alumni of Harvard University (NAAHU) Student Leadership Award for her impact as a student leader and advocate on campus. She was also awarded Utah Governor Herbert’s Multicultural Youth Leadership Day Educator Award in 2014 for her support work on behalf of first-generation Pacific Islander college students.
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