Kehaulani Fagatele-Folau

Kehaulani Fagatele-Folau is a queer Madau-Moana (Pohnpeian-Tongan) scholar-practitioner born and raised in Soónkahni (Salt Lake Valley) on the traditional and ancestral home of the Newe (Sosogoi/Shoshone; Kusiutta/Goshute), Núuchi-u (Yuuta’/Ute), and Nuwuvi (Paiute) peoples. Her scholarship and research draw from the epistemologies and pedagogies of Indigenous peoples of the Pacific, and utilize culturally relevant method/ologies such as koasoai/talanoa (Pohnpeian/Tongan for talk story), iroir (Pohnpeian for reflection), and hohoko (Tongan for genealogy) in her work. Kehau recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship for the Research Collaborative for Higher Education in Prison at the University of Utah, where she also earned her Ph.D. in Education, Culture and Society, M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy, and B.S. in Ethnic Studies. Her hobbies include cuddling with her fur-baby, Havok (Cane Corso,) and cooking with her wife, Lilly.