Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor David J. Canepa, District 5
Subject: Appointment to the Arts Commission
RECOMMENDATION:
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Recommendation for the appointment of Manufou Liaiga-Anoa’i to the San Mateo County Arts Commission, representing District 5, for an initial partial term ending December 31, 2022.
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BACKGROUND:
The Arts Commission was created to promote and encourage the arts, to serve in an advisory capacity to the Board of Supervisors, to prepare and update the County’s strategic and cultural plan, and act as a liaison with arts organizations in order to ensure collaboration and coordination related to culture and art activities in San Mateo County.
DISCUSSION:
Manufou Liaiga-Anoa’i is being recommended to serve an initial partial term for a District 5 seat that was vacated mid-term by Pauline Fong.
Manufou Liaiga-Anoa’i, warmly known as “Fou” to friends and family, is a proud San Francisco native and first-generation Samoan-American. Her leadership has been recognized and celebrated as Woman of the Year in the California Assembly, in the City and County of San Francisco by Mayors Willie Brown and Edwin Lee, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, and nationally through the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In May of 2019, Manufou was appointed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond as Co-Chair to the Closing the Gap Initiative and continues to advocate for equity, inclusion and access.
In 2009, she founded Pacific Islander Community Partnership whose mission is to “Engage, Educate & Empower Our Pacific Communities” and in 2011 created Camp Unity - Polynesian Pacific Islander Summer Enrichment Program which has served 8,000 Bay Area students over the past ten years.
Manufou is the Health and Nutrition Services Manager for the Institute for Human and Social Development. Her agency administers Head Start and Early Head Start - Early Childhood Education sites throughout San Mateo County. She is also a public servant on the Jefferson Elementary School District in Daly City and was elected and has served the School Board Trustees for the past five years. Manufou Liagia-Anoa’i has been a commissioner with the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) since 2011, and is ending her term this December 31, 2020. Last year, she served as Vice-President of the CSW. She is also on the City of Daly City Personnel Board, Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s Asian Pacific Islander Caucus, the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center Board and the Lowell High School Alumni Board of Directors.
A product of public education, Manufou has attained her Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco, her Associates Degree in Liberal Arts from the American Samoa Community College and is a graduate of Lowell High School. She and her family have called Daly City home for the past 25 years.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.