About Us
The Regional Pacific Islander Taskforce (RPITF or “Taskforce”) is a public health organization founded in 2015 to address the lack of visibility, data, and reporting on Pacific Islander (PI) health in public health departments across the Bay Area.
Serving as an advisory council to the directors of the health departments and their leadership, the Taskforce raises the awareness and visibility of Pacific Islander health and social issues by:
- Educating counties on Pacific Islander history and culture
- Improving regional data collection and reporting on Pacific Islander communities
- Building intergenerational solidarity
- Increasing Pacific Islander civic-engagement participation
Our Mission
RPITF’s mission is to unify Pacific Islanders across the Bay Area to address community needs through sustainable cross-system collaboration.
Our Team
Learn more about those who care for you at RPITF!
Taunuu Vee
Co-Chair & Co-Founder
Natalie Tualemoso Ah Soon
Co-Chair & Co-Founder
Meritiana Tamiano
Administrator & Logistics Coordinator
Maya Ito
Program Coordinator/Resource Navigator
Pogisa Tau
Contract Tracer/Case Investigator (CTCI)
Tuna Vahai
Contract Tracer/Case Investigator (CTCI)
Who We Serve
The purpose of the Taskforce is to ensure that the 10 Bay Area County agencies and public health departments align and standardize their data practices to adequately capture the state of Pacific Islanders’ (PI) population health.
In order to do this, the Taskforce champions a regional approach model for PI communities in each county to be better linked in operations, funding priorities, program development, and health services delivery to improve their health outcomes through organizational partnerships and community-based collaborative efforts.
Today, many Pacific Islanders are still invisible in aggregated public health data and thus underserved as their unique needs are not considered in focus. It is vital to build standards for Pacific Islander data disaggregation in order to see the issues confronting this diverse community. The Taskforce will continue to support advocacy and grassroots efforts to envision innovative practices for understanding PI community health.
“We should not be defined by the smallness of our islands but by the greatness of our oceans.”
-Dr. Epeli Hau’ofa
WHAT WE DO
The Taskforce is a highly collaborative coalition of leaders from over 20-organizations who volunteer their time to collaborate and serve their PI community in the Bay Area.
They are professors, clinicians, executive directors, managers, faith leaders, and community advocates. This effort is entirely led and driven by local community champions and community-based organizations (CBOs) in partnership with Bay Area regional health departments and agencies.