2021 HLA+PIALA Joint Conference

Rlene Santos Steffy

Rlene Santos Steffy is a woman of many talents. A respected journalist, she is also recognized as an esteemed ethnographer and documentarian. She is considered the leading oral history practitioner in Micronesia and was appointed as a research associate at the University of Guam’s Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center. Among her many accomplishments, Rlene produced the history of Guam from 1521 to 1898 in 36 half-hour video episodes. After retiring as a newspaper columnist in 2020, Rlene created a series on the wildlife of the Mariana Islands and produced a second documentary on Guam’s governor, Paul McDonald Calvo. For her professional and academic achievements, Rlene was conferred a Doctor of Humane Letters at the Fanuchånan 2020 commencement ceremony at the University of Guam.