US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Medicaid Director Sandra King Young and Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard are among 19 women from the US territories named by USA Today as having made significant contributions to their communities as “Women of the Century.
USA Today said:
Born on Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa, Tulsi Gabbard and her family moved to Hawaii when she was 2. Since 2002, she has represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the House of Representatives. She is the first Hindu to be elected to Congress, as well as the first Samoan-American voting member. In 2003, Gabbard enlisted in the National Guard, serving a 12-month tour in Iraq. She later served a 12-month tour in Kuwait. In 2013, she received the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award on behalf of her advocacy for veterans. She became the first female combat veteran to run for president when she joined the Democratic primary in 2019.
The director of Medicaid in American Samoa since 2013, Sandra Salevasaosamoa King-Young has worked her entire career to help people on the island access health benefits and better education. 
Prior to her Medicaid role she was the founder and executive director of Pacific Island Center for Educational Development, a nonprofit that worked directly with parents – or the “first teachers” as they called them – to help prepare children for the SATs and college, while providing mentorship to students. A graduate of George Washington University Law School, she also spent 10 years working in Washington, D.C. In 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed her Deputy Director of the Office of Insular Affairs in the U.S. Department of Interior; at the time, it was the highest position a native Samoan had ever held in the executive branch. Born in Samoa, she was raised, and continues to live with her family, in American Samoa.
A scholar, poet, activist and environmentalist, Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard was the first person of Samoan ancestry to achieve the highest academic ranking (full professor) in the United States. She taught creative writing and Pacific literature for nearly 20 years at the 
University of Hawaii in Honolulu. An accomplished author who has written both academic and non-academic books, her poetry collection, “Alchemies of Distance” published in 2002. In academia, she focused primarily on Samoan/Pacific Islander literature, mythologies and folklore and how those texts help ancient traditions and wisdom be passed on to the present day. Additionally, in the early 90s, she founded the first environmental nongovernmental organization in American Samoa. She is Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt.
