Maya Soetoro-Ng

Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng (née Soetoro) was born on August 15, 1970, in Jakarta, Indonesia, at Saint Carolus Hospital, a Catholic medical facility. She is the daughter of American anthropologist Ann Dunham and Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro. Her mother, Ann Dunham, was of Swiss, German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and English descent, while her father was of Indonesian nationality.

Soetoro-Ng has two half-brothers: Barack Obama, born in 1961, who served as the 44th president of the United States, and Bayu Yusuf Aji Soetoro, born in 1981. She also has a half-sister, Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro, born in 1984, and an adoptive sister, Holiah Soetoro (1957–2010). She was named after American poet Maya Angelou.

During her childhood in Indonesia, Soetoro-Ng was homeschooled by her mother. She attended Jakarta International School from 1981 to 1984. Following her mother’s decision to return to Indonesia with her, she spent several years in Indonesia and Hawaii before her parents' divorce in 1980. After the divorce, her father remarried, producing additional half-siblings with no direct relation to Obama.

In her educational journey, Soetoro-Ng returned to Hawaii and graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu in 1988. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College of Columbia University. She then obtained two master’s degrees from New York University: one in secondary language studies and another in secondary education. In 2006, she earned a Ph.D. in international comparative education from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Professionally, Soetoro-Ng is a faculty specialist at the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, within the College of Social Sciences. She also serves as a consultant for the Obama Foundation's Asia-Pacific Leaders Program, focusing on leadership development in the region. Her teaching includes courses on Peace Education, the History of Peace Movements, and Leadership for Social Change. Additionally, she supervises externships for undergraduate students majoring or minoring in Peace Studies and manages the institute’s community and global service learning initiatives.

She previously worked as an assistant professor at the University of Hawaiʻi’s Institute for Teacher Education, where she developed curricula for educators and promoted international exchanges through partnership with the East West Center. She has also taught history at La Pietra: Hawaii School for Girls and the Education Laboratory School in Honolulu, as well as working at The Learning Project, an alternative public middle school in New York City, from 1996 to 2000.

In 2009, Soetoro-Ng contributed to the publication of her mother’s dissertation, “Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia,” writing a foreword and participating in its launch at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting. She is the author of the children’s book *Ladder to the Moon* (2011), inspired by her mother and her daughter Suhaila. She is also working on a book about peace education and a young adult novel titled *Yellowood*.

In addition to her academic and writing pursuits, Soetoro-Ng co-founded The Peace Studio in 2019 with Todd Shuster and Jennifer Gates, a nonprofit organization supporting artists, journalists, and storytellers in peacebuilding efforts. Her doctoral research focused on multicultural and international education, particularly on narrative methods to develop complex understandings of identity in diverse classrooms. She has been involved in creating peace education curricula for both high schools and K–12 teachers and co-founded nonprofit organizations such as Ceeds of Peace and the Institute for Climate and Peace.

In her political engagement, Soetoro-Ng assisted her brother’s 2008 presidential campaign, taking time off to campaign and speaking at the Democratic National Convention that year. She also addressed the 2012 Democratic National Convention, sharing the stage with Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson.

In her personal life, Soetoro-Ng married Konrad Ng in 2003. Ng, of Malaysian Chinese descent, is a Canadian who became a U.S. citizen and worked as the director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and assistant professor at the University of Hawaii. Currently, he is the executive director of the Doris Duke Shangri La Center for Islamic Arts and Culture in Honolulu. They have two daughters, Suhaila and Savita. Soetoro-Ng describes herself as "philosophically Buddhist" and is fluent in Indonesian, Spanish, and English.