Dr. Sunyeen (“Sunny”) Pai served nearly two decades at Kapiʻolani Community College as Digital Initiatives Librarian and in key accreditation and administrative roles. A dedicated advocate for equitable access to information, she has been a powerful voice for diversity, inclusion, intellectual freedom, and Open Educational Resources (OER).
As Hawaiʻi Library Association President in 2023, during a period marked by rising disinformation and censorship, Sunny championed the role of libraries in safeguarding democratic values. She has been a leader on OER as a social justice issue: as commercial textbook prices have far outpaced inflation, they have become barriers to student success. In 2021 testimony to the UH Board of Regents, she noted that she and her colleagues had saved community college students more than $12 million in textbook costs since 2016.
Sunny’s leadership extends beyond academia. She has been active in the Democratic Party and in local human rights and social justice organizations. She played a key role in leading the Bamboo Ridge digital repository, one of the earliest and most significant centers for literature reflecting local sensibility. Through a Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities grant, she helped digitize 143
publications, expanding access to local literature. These efforts required extensive collaboration among librarians and archivists to establish standards, develop metadata, and implement open-source systems that protect user confidentiality.
Sunny has also worked with HLA to advance intellectual freedom and strengthen advocacy efforts, testifying at the legislature and helping activate the association’s advocacy committee. As a leader in education data and evaluation and a WASC-ACCJC external accreditor, she brings rigor, integrity, and vision to her work. Across all her endeavors, Dr. Pai exemplifies the spirit of
service, professionalism, and community commitment central to the School of Communication and Information.