Dr. Mary Therese Perez Hattori is Director of the Pacific Islands Development Program. Prior to this, she was a Scholarship Program Specialist in the East-West Center’s Education Program, Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning and Associate Professor of Education at Chaminade University; Outreach Director of the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at UHM; and Associate Professor of Information Technology and Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology at Kapiʻolani Community College.

A native Chamoru of Guåhan (Guam), she is a community organizer and advocate for Pacific islanders in Hawaiʻi, co-organizer of cultural events such as the Annual Cultural Animation Film Festival, the Annual Celebrate Micronesia Festival, Micronesian Women’s Summit, and Oceania on the Reel, and teacher/mentor of students in Pacific Studies, Learning Design & Technology, and the UHM & San Francisco State University Educational Doctorate programs which are part of the Carnegie Project on the Educational Doctorate. She is Affiliate Graduate Faculty of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the USC Rossier School of Education. Dr. Hattori is also an author, poet, public speaker, and philanthropist.

Ian Curtiss is a faculty member and former Assistant Dean for Asia at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He led the school’s engagement in East Asia and strategic initiatives. Prior to joining W. P. Carey, Ian’s career focused on East Asian public affairs and market research for public and private clients.

Most recently, Ian led the policy and U.S. government affairs teams at the American Chamber of Commerce in China. In this role, he consulted American businesses on the latest policy developments, developed strategies to influence US-Chinese economic relations and coordinated all programs with U.S. agencies. Prior to that, Ian worked at a number of organizations in Arizona government affairs and research. Ian has Bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science from Arizona State University, a Master’s of International Relations from Peking University and an MBA from the W. P. Carey School of Business. Ian is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.