Manufou Liaiga-Anoa’i is a proud San Francisco native from the Excelsior District and first generation Samoan-American. Happily married and a mother of six, she currently is the regional vice president of Innovate Public Schools in San Jose. A product of public education, she was re-elected in November 2020 garnering the most votes in the history of the local school board elections. She is now serving her third term as a board trustee and was past president and vice president on the Jefferson Elementary School District Governing Board in Daly City. Liaiga-Anoa’i wears several hats in the community as she believes in the value and importance of representation. She is easily found in service as a commissioner on the Daly City Personnel Board, San Mateo County Arts Commission – District 5 representative, board member to P.I.E.F.E.S.T. – Pacific Islanders Encouraging Fun, Engineering, Science & Technology and APAICS – Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies and SF Pacific Islander Maternal Advisory Board.
For the past 10 years she has been a commissioner to the San Mateo County and past vice president on the Commission of Status Women, a commissioner on the City of Daly City Arts and Culture Commission, Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s Asian Pacific Islander Caucus, Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center Board and Lowell High School Alumni Board of Directors and on the Board of Directors for REACH San Mateo County. 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 10 years. In May of 2019, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond appointed her as co-chair to the Closing the Gap Initiative where she continues to advocate for equity, inclusion and access. Some of her past achievements and career highlights include being the first Samoan Pacific Islander student government president at San Francisco’s Lowell High School and the first Pacific Islander Liaison in the city & county of San Francisco under then-Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. Her leadership has been recognized and celebrated as Woman of the Year in the California Assembly, in San Francisco by Mayors Willie Brown and Edwin Lee, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, city of Daly City and South San Francisco, ABC 7 AAPI Unsung Heroes, Comcast Change Makers and nationally through the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She is currently running for a seat on the Daly City Council and if elected, will be the first Pacific Islander to serve in this capacity in the state of California.