Senate President Colleen Hanabusa received the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award at a ceremony at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts on February 14, 2009. The Spirit of Excellence Awards celebrate the efforts and accomplishments of lawyers who work to promote a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession.
>Watch the ABA presentation online: go to "recent clips" on Feb 14 and select Colleen Hanabusa.
Senator Hanabusa is the first woman to preside over either chamber of the Hawai‘i State Legislature, and the first Asian-American woman in the nation to preside over a state legislative body.
“Senator Hanabusa is a role model for women and for Asian-Americans,” said Fred Alvarez, chair of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. “She has used her visibility to encourage young minority women to see law as a viable career, and a way to advance both their own success and their goals for improving society. She has supported other minority women’s professional careers across the state of Hawai‘i.”