KUʻUPUA MOSSMAN
Historic Legal Specialist & Kaliʻuokapaʻakai Collective Coordinatort Coordinator

Kuʻupua Mossman is from Kalauao, Ewa, Oʻahu and currently resides in Kalama Valley. She received dual Bachelors of Arts degrees in Environmental Studies and Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and in 2019, graduated from the William S. Richardson School of Law where she earned Environmental and Native Hawaiian Law certificates in addition to her Juris Doctorate. During law school, Kuʻupua focused her legal education on social justice issues in Hawaiʻi, participating in Native Hawaiian law trainings across the pae ʻāina and working on wrongful conviction cases with the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project. In addition to her studies, she worked as a Pre-Law Advisor, externed at the Hawai'i Supreme Court and the Office of the Public Defender, and clerked for Senator Mazie Hirono in Washington D.C. Most recently, Kuʻupua worked as a Post-J.D. Legal Fellow for Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. More specifically, her placement was with the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources' Historic Preservation Division where she worked to amend the division's administrative rules, assess historic preservation violations, and led the legal training sessions for the Island Burial Councils.