Maya Soetoro-Ng

Maya Soetoro married Konrad Ng, a Chinese-Canadian in 2003. He is a US citizen and of Malay-Chinese descent. He was an assistant professor in the Academy of Creative Media at the University of Hawaii.

He was also the Director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Maya and her husband have a number of shared interests. He is currently the Executive Director of Doris Duke Shangri La Center for Islamic Arts and Culture in Hawaii in Honolulu.

After a year of their marriage, the couple welcomed their first child together in 2004 and named her Suhaila. Their second daughter was born in 2008 is named Savita.

Maya Kasandra Soetoro was born as Maya Kassandra Soetoro on August 15, 1970 in Saint Carolus Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her mother was Ann Dunham, an American cultural anthropologist and her father was Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian businessman.

Her parents divorced in 1980 when she was 10. Since then, she spent time moving around with her mother and half-brother Barack Obama. Since her father remarried, she has another half-brother named Yusuf Aji Soetoro and a half-sister named Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro.

She was homeschooled by her mother till she was 11 years of age. From 1981 to1984, she attended Jakarta International School. She then moved to Hawaii and attended Punahou School and in 1988 graduated from the same.

She studied at Barnard College, Manhattan, New York and attained her BA in 1993. She then received an MA from New York University in secondary language studies and another MA in Secondary Education from the same university.

In 2006, Maya completed her PhD in International Comparative Education from the University of Hawaii.

Maya was an Assistant Professor at Institute for Teacher Education at the University of Hawaii’s College of Education.

Prior to that, she taught in The Learning Project, a public middle school in New York, from 1996 to 2000. She was also a high school history teacher in Honolulu. She taught in Education Laboratory School and La Pietra: Hawaii School for Girls.

Maya has worked as a consultant in research. Her research focused on Multicultural and International Education. She has implemented peace education in public schools and has organized workshops to help those in need of guidance.

The founder of ‘Ceeds of Peace’, Maya facilitates classes on World culture, US history and constitution and trains Peacemakers.

She was an Education Specialist at the East West Center and enabled the exchange of teachers from US to China and vice versa.

Maya is the founder of Ceeds of Peace, a nonprofit organization that provides support to distressed families and develops peacebuilding leaders. The organization also works to make better the lives of communities and students.

In 2013, she attended an event honoring graduating female students from Mercer Island High School and awarded them with $5,000 Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship.

Maya has often spoken out against the criticism and discrimination students of mixed race face in the society. She has worked taking several seminars to solve this problem and create awareness among people. She has also emphasized the need to understand and respect diversity of culture.

She has cofounded Our Public School, a nonprofit school.

In 2016, Maya Soetoro-Ng along with her representatives held a dialogue at the China Global Philanthropy Institute and spoke about Charity, Education and Cultural Exchange.