In the Richardson School of Law he is based with the Ka Huli Ao, Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. He received a bachelor’s degrees in both Philosophy and Hawaiian Studies in 2002, a M.A. in 2005 and a PhD in Cultural Geography in 2008. He is a former ‘Ōiwi Ake Akamai doctoral fellow as well as Mellon-Hawaii post-doctoral Fellow, and a co-director of the First Nations’ Futures Fellowship Program. His research publications and interest focus on indigenous agency, Native Hawaiian land tenure, resource management, food systems, and the land and resource law of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He teaches courses on resource management, land tenure, and the Hawaiian Kingdom.