Ava grew up in Hawai'i on the island of O'ahu. Growing up as an indigenous and asian child on a very diverse island, 30 miles long, in the middle of the ocean, shaped and contextualized Ava's perception of equity and justice, and ingrained in her an insatiable need and curiosity to understand systemic institutions and the law.
As a first-generation college student, Ava attended the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, where she competed as a NCAA Division 1 athlete on the Rainbow Wahine Track and Field team in the shot put, hammer throw, and 20lb weight events.
After college, Ava served as the healthcare committee clerk in the Hawai'i State Legislature, where she began to see the law as something accessible, collaborative, and evolving. Her time in health policy inspired her to pursue a career in healthcare compliance and administration. She worked in various roles in academic medicine, OBGYN research, and women's health. Seeing the underrepresentation of issues meaningful to her influenced her to pursue law as a 2nd career.
In law school, Ava clerked in the general counsel's office healthcare compliance division for Planned Parenthood North Central States, and at the Dept. of Justice US Attorney's Office ““ Civil Division as their healthcare fraud law clerk. She then clerked at one of the largest plaintiff firms in Minnesota where she went on to become an associate attorney specializing in personal injury, medical malpractice, mass torts, and medical device litigation.
When Ava is not in the office, she can be found teaching Torts as an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, skiing, pretending to golf in charity tournaments, or eating out at the latest and greatest hotspot.