---

Hon. Colleen Hanabusa

Colleen Hanabusa is a prominent labor lawyer who served in the Hawaiian State Senate (1998-2010) and was the first woman to serve as president of that body (2007-2010). Hanabusa represented Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for four terms (2011-15) (2016-19). Education, health care, finance and civil service reforms have been areas of special concern during her legislative career.

Hanabusa was born in Honolulu to June and Isao Hanabusa and raised in Waianae Oahu’s West Side. Her great grandparents immigrated from Japan to work on Hawaii’s sugar plantations. Her grandparents were interned during WWII in the Honouliuli Camp on Oahu.

She matriculated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa earning, successively, a bachelor’s degree in economics in sociology and economics (1973), a master’s degree in sociology (1975) and a law degree (1977).

Hanabusa resides on Oahu with her husband John Souza.