those who are underrepresented in their community. Matapuna’ s world views continued to develop when she served a church mission on the Navajo Reservation. She saw a population that struggled with many issues, admired the resilience in them, and recognized the system fighting against them. As a social worker these two main events in her life is what kept her grounded and rooted to the cause.
Puna studied at BYU-Hawaii, where she earned a bachelor’ s degree in Social Work with a minor in Sociology. Afterward, Puna moved to Utah with her husband, leaving behind her immediate family and friends.
In Salt Lake City she interned at the International Rescue Committee, a refugee resettlement agency, and was a case worker and mental health intern. These were enriching experiences that helped Puna apply new skills to her commitment to care for the community.
Now in her role as Salt Lake Area Family Justice Center Guide & Case Manager at the YWCA, she works out her belief that everyone’ s life is unique and that everyone deserves compassion. She is particularly aware of the needs of Asians and Pacific Islanders in Utah. She sits on the Utah Independent Living Center Board of Directors and the YWCA’ s Young Women’ s Council. She is the Veteran Chair for the Utah Pacific Islander Health Coalition and the Utah Pacific Civic Engagement Coalition. She leads with a warm-spirited heart to better her community and family. All of these positions have taught Puna that everything is relative and she learns all she can to help her community and meet their needs.
Puna works deliberately to be a voice for her community, which doesn’ t often get its voice heard. The Pacific Islander community has a sizable population in parts of Utah, but their needs are rarely met by the larger systems in place. To attempt to remedy this, Puna utilizes her nonprofit background to educate Utah’ s Pacific Islander community about the resources available to them.
Puna loves Salt Lake City and the diversity that she sees and interacts with on a daily basis. An important topic that arose was that communities of color need to collaborate and unite to empower the ethnic community as a whole.
As a grassroots organizer, she sees importance in the support that is needed from everyone. She is hoping to hold a huge event for the community with speakers who will rally the community to vote and become aware of social and health resources and services.
As an advocate for women and women of color in particular, she hopes to create her own nonprofit that intersects social justice, direct services, and advocacy work. She wants to host conversations that question beliefs and push people to critically think about their world.
To inspire is to create new paths, and Puna does that for women and her community everywhere.
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