Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The National Governors Association (NGA) hosted its annual Governors’ Education Policy Advisors Institute (GEPA) from September 11-13 in Birmingham, Alabama. The event brought together over 90 participants, including representatives from U.S. states and four territories—American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

American Samoa was represented by Operations Manager Tiana Trepanier, Special Projects Manager Dr. Siniva Mann, Chief Legal Counsel Kristi Thaxton from the Office of the Governor, and Education Administrator Jeanette Vasai-Tilo from the Department of Education.

The three-day event addressed various topics, including Alabama Governor Polis's 2024 initiative, Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success. Sessions covered play-based learning and its role in assessing early childhood progress, challenges in the educator workforce, and public sector efforts to implement skills-based strategies. Key discussions also explored the impact of AI, social media, and technology on students and schools, innovative approaches to student nutrition through school meals and summer EBT, and improving data and outcome metrics in education, education finance, early literacy, and evidence-based reading instruction.

This event holds great significance for American Samoa, as well as for all states and territories, by offering an opportunity to access resources and support for developing data-driven policies and improving local education strategies. The NGA also announced a data project aimed at providing states and territories with technical assistance tailored to their specific needs, and American Samoa plans to apply for this support.

The three-day event concluded with a site visit to Charles A. Brown Elementary School International Baccalaureate, where policy advisors shared insights about their respective states and territories with the students.