Welcome to the personal website of Kris Coffield, a trauma survivor, sex trafficking victim advocate, political activist, campaign strategist, public policy specialist, and independent scholar living in Hawai’i.
About
Kris Coffield advocates for socioeconomic equality, educational opportunity, environmental and racial justice, and human rights. He currently serves as Executive Director of Imua Alliance, chief-of-staff for Rep. Jeanné Kapela at the Hawaiʻi State House of Representatives, and chairperson of the Democratic Party of Hawai’i Education Caucus.
Kris is a survivor of sexual trauma who is dedicated to coordinating trauma care for victims of sexual violence and building a world that is free from exploitation. He is completing a poetry collection about his experiences entitled Survivalist. He posts short poems and regular updates about his healing journey on Facebook and Instagram.
Kris has authored some of Hawai’i’s most progressive pieces of legislation, including the state’s sex trafficking ban (Act 206, 2016) and anti-revenge-porn law (Act 116, 2014), as well as proposals to institute single-payer healthcare (SB 1199, 2017), eliminate private prisons (SB 2979, 2018), accelerate Hawai’i’s transition to a clean energy economy (HB 1934, 2020), institute comprehensive paid sick leave (HB 2, 2021) and paid family leave (HB 5, 2021) programs, establish a living wage (HB 4, 2021), strengthen racial justice (HB 11, 2021) and sexual wellness curricula (SB 1347, 2021) in public schools, levy green fees (HB 6, 2021) and a carbon tax (HB 460, 2021) to combat climate change, expand protections for victims of sexual violence on college campuses (HB 691, 2021), and enact legal personhood for the sacred Native Hawaiian land of Mauna Kea (HB 693, 2021).
He has also drafted over forty bills for the Hawai’i State Teachers Association, including the original constitutional amendment text to increase education funding (SB 2922) and Schools Our Keiki Deserve Act (SB 2586, 2016).
As a victim service provider for survivors of human trafficking, Kris has rescued over 170 people from Hawaiʻi’s slave trade. A specialist in direct intervention services, he regularly oversees outreach in locations at which exploitation is known to occur, often putting his life on the line to emancipate victims from sexual servitude. He is a leader in prevention education programming that empowers professionals and school communities to create spaces that are safe from sexual violence and provide victims of violence with trauma-informed care.
Kris is the editor of Interstitial: A Journal of Modern Culture and Events (journal is on temporary hiatus). His scholarly work has been published in World History Connected, In Media Res, Evental Aesthetics, and Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures.
View his professional resumé at the following link: work experience. Organizations with which he is affiliated appear below.
Imua Alliance, Founder and Executive Director (2010-present)
Hawai’i Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Member (2012-present)
Democratic Party of Hawai’i, Education Caucus Chair (2018-present)
Hawai’i State Teachers Association, Government Relations Consultant (2012-2018)
Friends of Jeanné Kapela, Campaign Manager (2018-present)
Friends of Amy Perruso, Campaign Manager (2018-2020)
Friends of Micah Pregitzer, Campaign Manager (2019-2020)
Blog
Schools Still Need Virus Vigilance
Safety first. As children, that motto was drilled into our minds. Whether we were crossing a street, learning how to ride a bicycle, or interacting with strangers, we were told to prioritize our personal security. If we behaved recklessly, then we knew that there might be consequences to our well-being. To improve public schools’ pandemic …
So Much Left To Learn
Twenty years ago, American naïveté was hijacked. Before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the United States thought of itself as impervious. Politicians believed that the fall of the USSR had resolved all grand ideological debates. Commentators predicted that democratic capitalism would consume the globe in short order. Even …
Resentment Is A Modern Problem
Everyone remembers the day. On January 6, 2021, rioters roiled by Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 U.S Presidential election stormed the nation’s Capitol, tearing through barricades and building security, and sending death chants echoing through the hallowed halls of Congress. More than 140 people were injured in the assault. Five people died, including police …
Writing
The following are samples of Kris Coffield’s writing.
Scholarly Articles
“Politicizing the Spectacle” in In Media Res, “Spectacles of Protest” theme week (May, 2017)
“Naked Games: Procedural Misogyny in Videogame Culture,” in In Media Res, “Just Add Nudity” theme week (October, 2014)
“Terror, Trauma, and the Thing at Ground Zero,” in Evental Aesthetics, Volume 1, Number 3 (September, 2012)
“Humanities in Hawaiʻi, From Statehood to the Present,” in Inquire Journal of Comparative Literature, Volume 2, Number 2 (September, 2012)
Reviews
Politics of the Event: Time, Movement, Becoming by Tom Lundborg, in Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, Volume 10 (Fall, 2013)
Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism by Noenoe K. Silva, in World History Connected, Volume 8, Number 3 (October, 2011)
Editorial
“Ending gender violence should be a pandemic priority” in Honolulu Star-Advertiser (December 3, 2020)
“Invest in education to end sex trafficking” in Honolulu Star-Advertiser (October 25, 2018)
Poetry
“Homeland PTSD,” poem in Streetcake, Issue 33 (January, 2014).
“Storm break,” haiku in Chrysanthemum, Issue 14 (October, 2013).
Contact
Kris can be contacted at the following phone number and email address. He will respond to all inquiries as quickly as possible. For victim assistance or to report a tip about a potential human trafficking case, please notify Imua Alliance.
Phone: (808) 679-7454
Email: kriscoffield@gmail.com
Kris Coffield 