‘Asena Taione-Filihia is a Tongan American educator and community organizer. She currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Asian American Resource Center (AARC) at Pomona College, a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Outside of the college setting, she cofounded the non-profit organization Pasifika Inland Empire Coalition for Empowerment (PIECE), which serves Pasifika and Pacific Islander families in the San Bernardino and Riverside counties. PIECE works to provide support to the community through direct services and local advocacy. In 2022, as the Assistant Director of the AARC at Pomona College, Taione-Filihia helped distribute funds to PIECE to support Pacific Islanders impacted by COVID-19.
Taione-Filihia also oversees the Saturday Tongan Education Program, a weekly program that connects the Inland Empire Tongan community with Pomona College with the aim of providing academic tutoring, cultural activities, and concrete resources to local Tongan youth. In community, she also serves as the Development Director for Motivating Action Leadership Opportunity (MALO), a non-profit organization that serves the Tongan and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander community in the Inland Valley.
To learn more about ‘Asena Taione-Filihia, check out her bio on the web page for MALO or her bio from her presentation at the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE) conference in 2023 (page 44).
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