by Renelaine Bontol Pfister
Representative Trish La Chica of District 37 (Mililani, Waipio Gentry, Koa Ridge) was selected for the 2025-2026 Future Caucus Innovation Fellowship, a two-year fellowship for Gen Z and millennial lawmakers.
She was selected along with Hawaii Representatives Greggor Ilagan and Kanani Souza.
Future Caucus is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports innovative policymaking.
For 2025, the participants select from four policy tracks: Civic Innovation, Energy & Environment, Prenatal-to-Three, and Criminal Justice.
Participants are given access to tools and experts, collaborate together, and will introduce a bipartisan piece of legislation at the completion of the fellowship.
La Chica has served more than 15 years in policy making, public health, and community engagement.
She was appointed to the House of Representatives in February 2023 by Governor Josh Green and is currently Assistant Majority Floor Leader and Vice Chair of the House Education Committee, where she focuses on early childhood education and primary and secondary education.
La Chica graduated from Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, and started her career as an Investigative Journalist and Field Producer on ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation in the Philippines from 2007 to 2009.
She moved to California where she graduated cum laude and acquired her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco.
She then embarked on a path of public service. Her previous positions from 2014 to 2021 include being Policy and Advocacy Director at the Hawaii Public Institute, Policy Analyst at the Office of the Governor, Health Care Innovation in Hawaii, and Community Engagement Specialist with the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum in California.
Her more recent positions before being appointed to the House include Community and Government Relations Manager with the non-profit health plan AlohaCare, where she played a role in passing two pieces of legislation into law: expanding post-partum Medicaid coverage to 12 months and restoring preventive dental health benefits.
After Aloha Care, she became Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing, where her work included overseeing the City’s 10-year affordable housing plan and 5-year homelessness action plan.
Mililani is where La Chica is raising her two young children, Foggy and Ricki, with her husband Cricket, and where she has made many positive changes, including cleaning up the homeless camp in Kipapa Gulch, increasing wildfire safety and preparedness, and restoring school bus services.
As a lawmaker, La Chica notably led the efforts to pass the following legislation into law: Act 191, which aims to prevent the spread and use of deceptive and fraudulent deep fakes during election periods, and Act 62, which regulates e-cigarettes, thereby increasing public safety and protecting our youth.
She’s been a member of the Filipina Association of University Women since 2015 and is an awardee of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World by Filipina Women’s Network (2015).
Rep. La Chica is also an awardee of President Biden’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Annual TOFA (The Outstanding Filipino Awards) on Oct. 27, 2024, an honor she shares with former Hawaii Governor Benjamin Cayetano and former state senator Bennette Misalucha. It is an astonishing achievement as this signals there is yet much more she can do.
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