Chayanee Brooks is a Nationally Board-Certified high school Language Arts teacher at Kaʻū High and Pahala Elementary School in Pahala, Hawaiʻi. She has been recognized as a Hawai’i State Teachers Association Pono Award Winner, Kaʻū-Keaʻau-Pāhoa Complex Area Teacher of the Year, Hawaiʻi State Teacher Fellow, and Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellow. She is currently a PhD candidate in neuroscience. Her passion is advising her students in her journalism club to produce their own personal documentary stories that are aired on public television in Hawaiʻi.