Brandy Nālani McDougall is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi poet raised on Maui. She is the author of The Salt-Wind Ka Makani Paʻakai and Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature. McDougall is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she earned her PhD. Her research interests include Indigenous rights and sovereignty movements, as well as American imperialism in the Pacific. McDougall is co-founder of Ala Press, an independent publisher that focuses on works by Indigenous Pacific Islanders.