Steffy to keynote CNMI Women’s Summit

The keynote address at this year’s CNMI Women’s Summit that will be held on Saipan will be delivered by Rlene Santos Steffy, ethnographer, oral historian, and research associate at the University of Guam’s Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC).

Steffy

A daughter of the Marianas, Steffy has contributed 40 years of historic preservation efforts through mass communication.

Considered the leading oral history practitioner in the region, her interviews and photographs have been published in local, regional, national and international conferences. Her achievements and scholarship earned her the Guam Preservation Trust Chairman’s Award, which for the first time in Guam history was awarded to a recipient who has displayed outstanding leadership in historic preservation.

Steffy received a presidential appointment at the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center, as a research associate on Aug. 10, 2007, with the title ethnographer and oral historian. She is considered the leading oral history practitioner in Micronesia by academic, business, media, local and federal government entities.

Over the past 41 years, she has developed into mass communication specialist incorporating a unique combination of professional, practical and academic casework and experience in the areas of advertising, electronic media, public relations, cyberjournalism, broadcast journalism, and photojournalism. She has flourished as an investigative reporter, public relations manager, marketing and advertising manager, videographer, newspaper columnist and managing editor, a documentary film producer, and author of CHamoru children’s books and Wildlife of the Mariana Islands Beginners Guild booklets.

As a proficient speaker in CHamoru and English languages, a skill of utmost importance in producing and documenting bilingual projects in mass media, Steffy has produced 10 locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally acclaimed Guam history video documentaries with grants from the Guam Historic Resource Division-National Park Service, Guam Legislature, and private funds.

Steffy is the first historian to produce the history of Guam—from 1521 through 1898—in 36 half-hour video episodes for television on the peopling of the Mariana Islands. It’s entitled iTinaotao Marianas, and it premiered in Guam on March 2014 and ran through September 2018 on KUAM TV8. It has also aired here in Saipan.

On March 11, 2019, Steffy ended her 25th year as a newspaper columnist which began with the Pacific Sunday News in 1994. In 1997, after immersing herself as a social, cultural, and political commentator as a newspaper columnist, she became a talk show host on K57 Radio while continuing to write her Pacific Sunday News column. In 2000 Steffy became the managing editor for the Guam Variety Newspaper. In 2001 she went back to K57 Radio and began hosting a two-hour weekly show, and soon after she became K57 Radio’s first investigative reporter.

Steffy’s interviews and photographs have been published in local, regional, national, and international magazines and news organizations and presented at international conferences. They have also been published in technical reports for the International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Cardno, Micronesian Archaeological Research Services and MARC.

She and her husband, Robert J. Steffy Sr., have published two editions of the 1908 Chamorro Diglot Bible and 10 local, national, and internationally acclaimed Guam History video documentaries with grants from the Guam Historic Resource Division-National Park Service, Guam Legislature, and private funds.

According to the CNMI Women’s Summit Steering Committee, this year’s Women’s Summit was conceived to promote the empowerment of women through women’s woven voices, particularly by opening up discussion and engaging in deep conversation about issues that affect women.

“We recognize the power of storytelling for cultivating the empowerment of women. As a gifted storyteller, Rlene brings histories and ‘her-stories’ to life. Stories create a personal connection that goes beyond the data; they endure the test of time by influencing and inspiring others to take action.”

The daylong event will be held Friday, March 29, from 7:30am to 4:30pm, at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan, and will revolve around the theme: “Lead-HER-Ship: Masters of our own Destiny.”

The summit will also feature a panel discussion and group breakout working session in the afternoon, where issues for policy advocacy and change and recommendations when/where policy is appropriate will be discussed and formalized as recommendations to the 21st CNMI Legislature.

For more information on the summit and the program, email cnmiwomen@gmail.com, visit https://www.facebook.com/cnmiwomen/, or call (670) 233-8978.

Interested participants may register at: bit.ly/cnmiwomenssummit.

Northern Marianas College will be live-streaming the morning session for those who wish to participate virtually: www.facebook.com/NMC.Proa. (PR)