Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

A FEW months ago, Filipino American Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho was elected as Kauai County Prosecuting Attorney, becoming the first female prosecutor in Hawaii’s history. In an interview with KGMB9 News, Iseri-Carvalho was asked to comment on the honor of having the new title. "It’s very exciting to learn that I’m the first female Hawaiian prosecutor. I learned about it after I got elected. It wasn’t something I knew about prior to getting elected," she said.

Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho graduated from the University of Colorado and UH William S. Richardson School of Law. She has been practicing law for 20 years, since 1989. In 1999, she was nominated for judgeship. She was the Public Defender for Kauai and Maui, before being elected for the first-time to public office in 2004. Having ousted incumbent Joe Munechika, Shaylene became the only newcomer in the seven-member county council.

After a diverse and valuable experience as a councilmember for almost four years, Isera-Carvalho chose to leave the County Council and ran unopposed to become the new County Prosecuting Attorney. Explaining her move in an interview, she said, "It had always been my passion to do litigation, to be in the courtroom setting. My experience over at the Kauai County Council has really allowed me to see things at a much broader perspective than just looking at law in and of itself. Based on these experiences, we have developed a concept and vision of what our office of the Prosecuting Attorney should be about. That concept is the guiding principle of Pono Kaulike- Equal Right and Justice for all."

Born and raised on Kauai, Shaylene comes from a family of ten. She is married and the proud mother of two children. For her outstanding work in government, Iseri-Carvalho

was among a selected group of Hawaii’s Filpino American elected officials honored by the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) last Aug 2008. The NaFFAA is a national, non-partisan organization comprised of 12 regional chapters that represent more than 500 Filipino-American organizations across the US and the Pacific Basin.

Kauai’s Prosecuting Attorney said her office will have a "grassroots approach to being a problem solver instead of being a case processor, which is what the traditional roots of a Prosecutor had been in the past." n

( www.asianjournal.com )

( Published on April 15, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. B2 )