Featured Speakers

Keynote Sessions

Explore the ideas and presentations that will help frame this year’s conference conversations.

Keynote Sessions

Learn more about the presentations and speakers featured during the online and in-person portions of this year's HLA Annual Conference.

Tuesday, November 10 • Online

Keynote Session 1

Time TBA

Artificial Intelligence

Two keynote presentations exploring artificial intelligence and its implications for information professionals.

Sabrina Thomas

Kamehameha Schools

Presentation

Our Enduring Value: Librarianship and AI

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future possibility for libraries; it is becoming part of our daily reality. AI-powered tools are increasingly integrated into library discovery platforms, scholarly databases, productivity software, and the research practices of many students, faculty, and librarians. Rather than asking whether AI belongs in libraries, we must ask how we will lead through this moment of technological change.

This keynote examines AI through three interconnected lenses: its integration into library vendor platforms, its growing influence on teaching, learning, and research, and the ways librarians themselves are thoughtfully incorporating AI into their own work. Along the way, we will explore not only what AI can do, but what it cannot, and why that distinction matters.

How will librarians fare in the AI boom? Not by competing with artificial intelligence, but by embracing the enduring strengths of our profession. As AI becomes increasingly capable of generating, summarizing, and synthesizing information, librarians remain essential guides in helping our communities evaluate evidence, question assumptions, and navigate an increasingly complex information landscape with curiosity, discernment, and integrity.

Ultimately, the future of librarianship is not a technological question, it is a values question. Libraries preserve more than information; they preserve conversation, context, and the rich diversity of human knowledge. In an age of instant synthesis, librarians have an enduring responsibility to protect complexity, amplify authentic voices, and ensure that multiple ways of knowing, including Indigenous knowledge systems rooted in relationship, place, and community continue to inform scholarship and learning. Technology will continue to evolve. Our values must continue to lead.

About the Speaker

Dr. Sabrina Thomas has been an academic librarian since 2006 and currently serves as the Learning Commons and Library Director at Kamehameha Schools Kapālama Campus. She is committed to fostering a collaborative learning environment where students are encouraged to explore, question, and grow while partnering with faculty and staff to cultivate inquiry, literacy, research, and lifelong learning.

Throughout her career, Sabrina has been passionate about helping libraries adapt to change while staying grounded in their core mission of serving students, faculty, and their communities. Her professional interests include artificial intelligence, information literacy, academic integrity, organizational leadership, and the evolving role of libraries in education. She has presented at regional and national conferences on these topics and enjoys exploring how emerging technologies can strengthen the human relationships at the heart of librarianship.

Sabrina serves as Hawaiʻi's representative to the American Library Association Council and is an active member of the Hawaiʻi Library Association. She is honored to join this year's conference and looks forward to the conversation about how librarians can thoughtfully shape the future of the profession.

Kelsey Amos

Purple Maiʻa Foundation

Presentation

Another Way to do AI? How Local Values, Knowledge and Accountability Could Shape AI, Instead of Corporations

Abstract

The dominant story about AI is grim and, in many ways, accurate: it consumes enormous resources, pollutes with both emissions and exploitative content, threatens jobs faster than workers can adapt, and degrades human cognition. This talk doesn't dispute that story — it complicates it. The worst aspects of today's AI landscape aren't inherent to the technology; they're design choices, shaped by the corporations and heavily-capitalized startups that build, own and fund the consumer technologies and industrial-scale data center rollout we experience as AI.

Drawing on thinking from Douglas Rushkoff and Naomi Klein, this talk traces three choices baked into today's frontier AI: massive, duplicative data centers for training instead of resource-appropriate design; a focus on general-use models instead of an abundance of AI reflecting local languages, Indigenous knowledges, and specific community needs; and governance left entirely to corporate user agreements instead of any democratic or cooperative forms of accountability — for both how these systems behave and who controls the entities that own them.

None of this is fixed. This talk walks through alternatives being built and experimented with at Hawaiʻi nonprofit, Purple Maiʻa Foundation: environmentally aware local compute, culturally-grounded model design, and governance that’s accountable to local needs and problems — before sketching an imaginary but concrete extension: what it might look like if Hawaiʻi's public library system didn't just adopt AI, but owned and stewarded it, island by island, on behalf of the communities it serves.

About the Speaker

Kelsey Amos is co-founder and co-CEO of Purple Maiʻa Foundation (PMF), a local nonprofit that educates and empowers the next generation of culturally grounded technology makers, and works to build a Hawaiʻi innovation ecosystem that they can stay and thrive in. PMF is part of Abundant Intelligences, an international, Indigenous-led research program that reimagines and designs AI based on Indigenous Knowledge systems. Kelsey has a PhD in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is from Mililani.

Tuesday, November 10 • Online

Keynote Session 2

Time TBA

Fundraising & Budgets

Two keynote presentations about fundraising, budgets, and sustaining Hawaiʻi’s information and cultural organizations.

Nainoa Mau

Friends of the Library of Hawaiʻi

Presentation

Together for Hawaiʻi's Libraries

Abstract

Founded in 1879 as the Honolulu Library and Reading Room Association by prominent business leaders and members of Hawaiʻi’s royal family, Friends of the Library of Hawaiʻi has evolved and endured for nearly 150 years. This presentation explores the organization’s rich history and how its mission has adapted to meet the changing needs of Hawaiʻi’s public libraries.

Attendees will learn how Friends of the Library of Hawaiʻi supports the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System through innovative fundraising, advocacy, volunteer management, and community partnerships, and how these efforts translate into meaningful investments in library programs, technology, and services across the state. This session will also examine strategies for engaging the organization’s diverse constituencies – including members, donors, customers, volunteers, board members, and library staff – to build a strong and sustainable network of support. Drawing on lessons from the past, the presentation will conclude with reflections on the opportunities and challenges ahead, demonstrating how honoring our history can help shape a vibrant future for support of Hawaiʻi’s public libraries.

About the Speaker

Nainoa Mau is the Executive Director of Friends of the Library of Hawaiʻi (FLH), bringing more than 15 years of experience advancing public libraries through nonprofit leadership, fundraising, advocacy, and community engagement. He works closely with the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System's 51 branches, collaborating with library administration, staff, and hundreds of volunteers to strengthen library services statewide. Nainoa has been instrumental in developing a network of statewide library support, providing leadership development, organizational support, and coordinated legislative advocacy. Under his leadership, FLH has achieved significant milestones, including acquiring a warehouse, launching a retail bookstore, and expanding fundraising initiatives that have increased fundraising revenue by 80% over the last ten years. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration from Clark University. Nainoa is committed to ensuring public libraries remain vibrant, accessible, and essential resources for lifelong learning and community connection.

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds

Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities

Michele Mitsumori

Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities

Joint Presentation

Cultivating The Waiwai Of Our Local Humanities Ecosystem Through Hawaiʻi History Day

Abstract

Hawaiʻi History Day (HHD), a state affiliate of National History Day, is a year-long history education program that has invigorated the teaching and learning of history and civics in grades 4-12. A program of the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities (HCH), a local affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) since 1972, HHD has served students, teachers, and families across the Hawaiian islands since 1991. This presentation provides an overview of HHD and the ways it increases student and teacher awareness regarding the waiwai (resources) in libraries, archives, and museums. We also discuss our ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi program, the only History Day program among 56 affiliates in an indigenous language, what we’ve learned in raising funds and resources, how local libraries and archives can get involved, and how HCH is faring following federal funding cuts to the humanities sector.

About the Speakers

Dr. Halena Kapuni-Reynolds was born and raised on the island of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Home Lands community of Keaukaha and Volcano Village. He currently serves as the Associate Curator of Native Hawaiian History and Culture at the National Museum of the American Indian, where he conducts an array of activities centered around research, exhibitions, public programs, and public service. In January 2024, he joined the Board of Directors of the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, where he has contributed to the development of an array of HCH programs and the establishment of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network (PIHN). Kapuni-Reynolds received his PhD in American Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2024. His dissertation examined Hawaiian language and English language source material to craft a decolonial story of Keaukaha with emphasis on grassroots activism, placemaking, belonging, preservation, and knowledge transmission within the community.

Michele Mitsumori serves as the Director of Community Partnerships at the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities. She first connected with the HCH’s Hawaiʻi History Day program by organizing a student award and civic education activity through the League of Women Voters of Hawaiʻi County for the Hawaiʻi district competition in 2020. Born in Kaimuki, she grew up in Hilo, graduated from Waiākea High School, and went on to earn a B.A. in English literature, and master’s degrees in secondary English education and business administration. She has over a decade of experience in fundraising and development in India and Japan as well as in Hawaiʻi, and is passionate about helping organizations communicate meaningful impact over time and how challenges turn into program improvements.

Friday, November 13 • Hilo

Keynote Session 3

Time TBA

The Roots of Our Knowledge

An in-person keynote presentation by Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit.

Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit

Awaiaulu

Presentation

Kahu I Ke Ahi: The Fires I Tend

Abstract

This talk is a reflection on the quiet, sometimes heavy, and often invisible work of carrying stories forward. In this keynote, Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit shares moments from her own journey—learning to listen deeply to ancestral voices, navigating the weight of kuleana, and finding purpose in the restoration of language, history, and identity. These are the fires she tends—not only for herself, but for her children and grandchildren, her community, and the generations still to come.

About the Speaker

Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit is a lifelong student of Hawaiʻi’s history and the Programs Director of Awaiaulu, where she has worked alongside Puakea Nogelmeier since 2011 to help guide major initiatives in Hawaiian-language resource development, historical preservation, and education. Formerly the Director of Hoʻolaupaʻi, the Hawaiian-language newspaper project, she now leads He Aupuni Palapala, an initiative to digitize and expand access to Hawaiian-language newspapers while preserving the physical originals.

She also built Kīpapa Educator Resources, an online platform that brings curated Hawaiian primary sources directly into classrooms for teachers, students, and communities. Through these efforts, Kauʻi remains committed to ensuring that Hawaiʻi’s history is preserved, shared, and carried forward in ways that inspire connection, understanding, and cultural confidence for generations to come.

A devoted mother of 12 and tūtū to 22 moʻopuna, Kauʻi is grounded by the parents and grandparents whose example shaped her sense of kuleana. Her ʻohana reminds her that this work is never only about the present moment; it is about what we inherit, what we protect, and what we make possible for those who come after us.

Saturday, November 14 • Hilo

Keynote Session 4

Time TBA

The Stories of Our Communities

An in-person keynote presentation and workshop by Leilani Portillo.

Leilani Portillo

Poet & Educator

Presentation

Uilo: Braiding Identity and Meaning Through Poetry and Art

Abstract

Uilo describes the eight strand braid used for the lei niho palaoa, the lei worn by aliʻi consisting of braided human hair and a curved sperm whale tooth pendant showing their high rank lineage. As with much of Hawaiian culture, we have had to adapt and change the way we practice since contact. In this keynote, the uilo will be used as both metaphor and practice of how we can weave our experiences to connect and build intentional community. It ultimately shows why we should continue to hold humanity at the center of everything we do.

In the workshop to follow, participants have the opportunity to learn the practice of haku kaula, or making rope, as a way to process and learn patience, perseverance, and even a kind of meditation. They will be able to make their own bracelet, anklet, or necklace with nylon cord and learn the 4, 6, and/or 8 strand braid. This practice acts as functional, aesthetic, and spiritual by allowing participants to learn a tactile, possibly new, skill, its connection to Hawaiian culture, and a beautiful piece they can wear or gift to someone they love.

About the Speaker

leilani portillo (they/ʻo ia) is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi artist-educator and graduate student in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. They teach HS English on Hawaiʻi island hoping to inspire the next generation of Kānaka to see the world differently, become more empathetic, and learn to fall in love with moʻolelo about their own culture as well as others that have experienced similar histories.