Patsy is an English Department faculty member at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, with a PhD in Learning Design and Technology and an MEd in Education. Her teaching and research awards include the UH Hilo Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi Award for Excellence and Innovation.
Her research interests, publications, presentations and teaching practices include instructional design; documentary film; English studies; comics/manga and migration stories; diverse, place- and community-based, culturally relevant resources in education; and cross-cultural exchange and educational collaboration between the United States, Asia and Europe.
Patsy is a Hawai‘i Herald contributing writer and was the gallery coordinator at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i in Honolulu. She is active in the community, serving on the boards for several organizations dedicated to diversity, education, the Japanese American community and youth. In addition, she is the scholarship chair of the Hawai‘i Island AJA (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) Veterans Legacy Association of the AJA Veterans Council and Sons & Daughters of AJA Veterans. Patsy lives in Hilo and struggles to balance her work, family and watching The Mandalorian.