Census Bureau Names Maile Taualii to National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Census Bureau today announced 10 new members of its National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations and has named Maile Taualii from the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a member of the committee.

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The National Advisory Committee advises the Census Bureau on a wide range of variables that affect the cost, accuracy and implementation of the Census Bureau's programs and surveys, including the once-a-decade census. The committee, which is comprised of 32 members from multiple disciplines, advises the Census Bureau on topics such as housing, children, youth, poverty, privacy, race, ethnicity and sexual-orientation issues.

"The committee has helped us meet emerging challenges the Census Bureau faces in producing high-quality statistics about our diverse nation," said Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director. "By helping us better understand a variety of issues that affect statistical measurement, this committee ensures that the Census Bureau continues to provide relevant and timely statistics used by federal, state and local governments as well as business and industry in an increasingly technologically oriented society."

The National Advisory Committee members, who serve at the discretion of the Census Bureau director, are chosen to serve based on their expertise and knowledge of the cultural patterns, issues and/or statistical needs of "hard-to-count" populations. The new members will be seated on Aug. 1.

Taualii is an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii, in the Office of Public Health Studies, Department of Public Health Sciences. She completed her Ph.D. in health services/public health informatics at the University of Washington. Taualii's primary interests are in the areas of indigenous health, public health informatics and public health genetics. Her work focuses on strategies and methods to liberate and analyze small data sets and the utilization of public health data to inform policy decisions. Taualii played a key role in establishing three federally funded community-based epidemiology centers: the Urban Indian Health Institute, designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve the American Indian and Alaska Native population residing in urban areas; the Native Hawaiian Epidemiology Center housed at Papa Ola Lokahi, the Native Hawaiian Health Board designated by the Affordability Care Act to monitor the health of Native Hawaiians; and the Pacific Islander Epidemiology Center out of California, which focuses its work on the Pacific Islander diaspora on the continental U.S.

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau