Portland State University

10/06/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/07/2025 16:38

Rooted in Culture, Making Waves at PSU

On a warm June afternoon, an otherwise drab conference room at Portland State University buzzed with excitement as Portland's Pacific Islander communities gathered under one roof. Colorful prints and familiar greetings filled the room as members of the Samoan, Hawaiian, Tongan, Palauan and Marshallese communities, among many other islands of the Pacific, joined school and community leaders in celebration.

At the center of it all, Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson took her place in a traditional Samoan 'ava ceremony, sharing a kava drink with guests. Gifts from the islands were exchanged, and as a finale, Lagipoiva performed a taualuga dance, her graceful movements met with cheers and, per tradition, a flurry of dollar bills.

It was a welcome worthy of a milestone. Lagipoiva is PSU's first professor in Pacific Islander and Asian American Studies.

When students see themselves reflected in their professors and mentors and when they can study their own histories and cultures in the classroom, they build critical connections and a stronger sense of belonging.

The scholar-in-residence position is the result of many years of advocacy, organizing and community support. Nearly 11% of PSU's undergraduate students identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander.

"When students see themselves reflected in their professors and mentors and when they can study their own histories and cultures in the classroom, they build critical connections and a stronger sense of belonging," Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Shelly Chabon said at the event. "Dr. Jackson's work will help us imagine and create the Pacific Islander and Asian American Studies program that our students want and need."

Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, center, adorned in florals, performs a taualuga dance to celebrate her arrival as PSU's first professor in Pacific Islander and Asian American Studies as members of Portland's Pacific Islander communities cheer her on.

A DAUGHTER OF SAMOA

Lagipoiva is a climate journalist, scholar and educator. But first and foremost, she's a daughter of Samoa, the South Pacific island nation located more than 5,000 miles from Portland.

"That's my foundation - and that foundation is culture, identity, family, respect and all the values that come with being Samoan and Polynesian," she says.

Lagipoiva says she knew she wanted to become a journalist from the young age of eight. Growing up on the island of Savai'i, she found it unfair that the more populated island of Upolu got all the news attention. She wanted to tell the stories of her island.

"I made it a point in my small life as a Savai'i child to make sure that the stories that extend beyond town were told," she says. "That was the motivation behind my becoming a journalist."

My lived experience is the foundation of everything that I teach and how I go about in the world in my work as a journalist, as an educator and as a community member.

At 19, Lagipoiva began her career as a reporter for the Samoa Observer, the only daily newspaper in the country. She covered everything from island politics to rugby but found her niche reporting on the environment - a passion she credits to her late mother, Va'asiliifiti Moelagi Jackson, a fierce Indigenous conservation leader who worked with the United Nations on environmental issues across the Pacific. About five years into her career, she wrote her first story on climate change and hasn't looked back since.

"I delved deep into climate journalism because I really felt that's where our stories needed to be told," she says.

The Pacific island nations are among the countries most imperiled by climate change, and as someone who has lived through climate disasters - cyclones, landslides, flooding - Lagipoiva brings her own experience and the resilience of her people into her reporting. Far too often when disasters strike, TV crews helicopter in with no regard for the local communities, land or cultural protocol.

"Seeing how international journalists treated communities like mine in covering the stories and then subsequently seeing how we were covered was eye-opening, but also provided an opportunity for me to shift the narrative by reclaiming the narrative of our people when they were at their most vulnerable as a result of the climate crisis," Lagipoiva says. "My lived experience is the foundation of everything that I teach and how I go about in the world in my work as a journalist, as an educator and as a community member."

Her reporting has led her to several different threads of research and scholarship. For her doctorate, Lagipoiva focused on the state sovereignty implications of the climate crisis and what the Pacific Islands stand to lose from something they didn't have a hand in creating.

She's also been exploring how the international media covers the Pacific Islands when it comes to climate and is working to shift the language and victim narrative that they so often use to describe Indigenous populations. As she begins her tenure at PSU, she also wants to dive deeper into Indigenous issues as it relates to artificial intelligence and the media.

"When we as journalists cover climate solutions or climate issues or Indigenous climate narratives, we inadvertently feed into the machine that then utilizes that sacred knowledge without consent of Indigenous leaders or knowledge holders," she says. "How do we then safeguard that knowledge from those who utilize AI?"

In conversations with students, Lagipoiva says issues of climate, culture and survival are top of mind for many of them - especially those from Micronesia, whose islands' very existence is threatened by the climate crisis and sea level rise.

It's about opening up a space and equipping them with the knowledge and tools to fully explore their identities and learn from each other.

"Having those students in the room and really helping them see those vulnerabilities but also helping them tell those stories will be something that I'm really looking forward to," she says. "We come from a really rich culture and we're constantly in it so young people don't realize the value and the richness of their culture. For me, it's about opening up a space and equipping them with the knowledge and tools to fully explore their identities and learn from each other."

KEEPING PACIFIC CULTURE ALIVE

Lagipoiva sees her new position as an opportunity to serve her Pacific Island community in a meaningful way and empower students to practice their own culture and be proud of who they are and where they come from. And that's true whether they're diaspora students who grew up in Portland or students from the islands - Micronesia, Melanesia or Polynesia.

This, ultimately, is why Lagipoiva came to PSU.

"I know it won't be easy, but I also know that the humility and solidarity that comes with being a Pacific Islander will be something that ties us together and will help me in navigating the complexities of where we are from and how students learn and how I can turn up for them," she says.

This fall, Lagipoiva is teaching Intro to Pacific Islander Studies and the Global Perspectives sophomore inquiry class. She's looking forward to introducing courses on Pacific literature, culture, gender and identity and climate journalism from a Global South perspective as she helps shape the development of the Pacific Islander and Asian American (PIAA) Studies curriculum at PSU.

She says similar programs in Hawaii, Utah and California - states with large Pacific Islander populations - provide a good roadmap, but she's excited to bring practical cultural elements into PSU's curriculum that diasporic academics who were born and raised in the continental U.S. don't often prioritize. She pointed to the 'ava ceremony at her welcome event as an example.

"That was the first 'ava ceremony done by PSU, but PSU has had Pacific Island students for a long time," Lagipoiva says. "They either hadn't felt empowered or been given the platform to do that."

The ceremony - a sacred custom in Samoa used for important occasions like a meeting of chiefs or the welcoming of visitors - includes the preparation and consumption of an 'ava drink. Every move made is deliberate according to protocol and the drink is served in an order that reflects the rank of the guests.

During PSU's ceremony, Lagipoiva was the first person to receive the 'ava, representing the highest chief of the visiting party, followed by Chabon, representing the highest chief of the host party. Modesta Minthorn, PSU's inaugural executive director of Tribal relations, had the honor of being served last after board trustees, city, county and community leaders. "It really excites me that I am able to support our students and our Pacific Island faculty and staff in making these ceremonies and key cultural practices the norm, and to empower them to do it so that culture may survive, irrespective of where they are," Lagipoiva says. "I promise you the next one will be done by students - not just Samoan students, but all of our Pacific students."

Cinta Tuaau, PSU's Pacific Islander student retention coordinator, plays the role of the 'ava mixer in a traditional Samoan 'ava ceremony.

A ROLE FIT FOR A CHIEF

Lagipoiva, who holds a chiefly title as a matai, commands a certain level of respect.

"I'm able to sit with chiefs, I'm able to sit with leaders, but I'm also able to be at the same level as students, so I can navigate these spaces safely and with our communities," she says. "Having someone in this role with a chiefly title says that the university cares about that cultural leadership role."

Having someone in this role with a chiefly title says that the university cares about that cultural leadership role.

Lagipoiva says it's a privilege to be able to bring her full self to PSU.

"I'm really grateful that I'm able to fully turn up not just as an academic and as a climate journalist in the profession that I do, but more importantly in my cultural role as a chief and a chieftess able to serve my community - not just Samoa but across the Pacific - in the Pacific Northwest."

She hopes that as students come to know and better understand their own cultures and identities, they'll be able to educate others and help shift the broader understanding of the Pacific Islands in the U.S.

"If at the end of this, students have a better understanding of their culture, can practice their culture, can have conversations confidently about their cultures, languages and the different vulnerabilities and strengths that come with being a Pacific Islander, that's a win," Lagipoiva says.

"I just need five [students] at this point," she quipped. "Five loud ones and we're good."

Portland State University published this content on October 06, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 07, 2025 at 22:38 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]