Ava is from Hawai’i on the island of O’ahu. Growing up Indigenous and Asian in the middle of the Pacific Ocean shaped and contextualized Ava’s perception of equity and justice, and ingrained in her an insatiable need and curiosity to understand systems, institutions, and the law. 

As a first-generation college student, Ava attended the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where she competed as a NCAA Division 1 athlete on the Rainbow Wahine Track and Field team in the shot put, hammer throw, and 20lb weight events.

After college, Ava served as the healthcare committee clerk in the Hawai’i State Legislature, where she began to see the law as something accessible, collaborative, and evolving. Her time in health policy inspired her to pursue a career in healthcare compliance and administration. She worked in various roles in academic medicine, OBGYN research, and women’s health. Seeing the underrepresentation of issues meaningful to her influenced her to pursue law as a 2nd career.