Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua is a professor and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) scholar from Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Her academic and political interests were shaped by early exposure to grassroots activism, student movements, and community resistance to evictions, environmental degradation, and economic injustice in Hawaiʻi during the 1970s and 1980s. As an undergraduate at the University of Hawaiʻi in the 1990s, she was active in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, which continues to inform her work. Her teaching and scholarship emphasize the importance of education and connection to ʻāina (land) as foundations for social transformation. A central goal of her work is to empower students to become critical thinkers and active participants in shaping their communities.