Nomination written by: Val LiHang Jacobo

Once every decade, Americans engage in our national Census. It's an important process as an accurate count ensures that every member of our community is represented. Unfortunately, in 2000, Pacific Islanders had the highest percent net undercount of any ethnic group at a rate of 4.6%. And according to Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, “This means we are also underserved through federal programs created to help communities like ours. We must understand that such an alarming inefficiency of data makes it difficult to assess and address our needs. Given that census data drives allocation of more than $400 billion per year in federal programs, we cannot let this continue as our numbers grow. We need to make sure everyone is counted.”

That's where people like JoAnn Fields come along. As a long-time community activist in San Diego, JoAnn previously served as Community Council Representative for the Office of Councilman Tony Young where she reaches out to the Filipino and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities to raise the visibility of issues affecting them and issues that historically have not been addressed by the City of San Diego. JoAnn is also responsible for coordinating the Fourth Council District Filipino Advisory Board and the Annual Filipino Heritage Festival. 

JoAnn was brought on in 2010 to reach out to the Pacific Islander communities particularly disadvantaged ethnic groups such as Tongans, Fijians, and Marshallese. JoAnn was instrumental in providing support resources, advice and strategic support to organizations and groups doing outreach during Census. She served as a lead advisor to the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Complete Census Count committee boosting participation and outreach efforts.

This included turning out the community for public rallies like the 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour, but also events like the Southern California Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Census 2010 Kick-Off.

The numbers for the Census are currently being crunched, analyzed and spewed out and thanks to the tireless work of people like Joann and the countless of others who were engaged in this work, we have a better sense of where our community is at and where we need to go.

Our warmest aloha to sister JoAnn, an AAPI unsung hero.