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Nikolao Pula, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary
Nikolao Pula is the first Pacific-Islander of Samoan ancestry ever to serve as the Director of the Office of Insular Affairs of the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. As the OIA Director and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Mr. Pula advises the Secretary on operational and administrative matters involving federal policy in the insular areas. The Office of Insular Affairs is the Executive Branch's liaison organization with four of the five principal U.S. insular areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and the three freely associated states (the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau). OIA also exercises certain residual responsibilities in two of the nine smaller U.S. insular areas, Palmyra and Wake Atolls. Mr. Pula served as OIA Director of Policy from February 2000 to January 2001 prior to assuming the Directorship. Then, Pula was responsible for the general policies regarding insular affairs and oversight of all federal activities. During his tenure with OIA, he also served as a policy desk officer from August 1993 to July 2000 and Acting Director from January 2001 to June 2002. Pula joined the Department of Interior in 1993. Before coming to the Department of the Interior, Mr. Pula worked for eleven years on Capitol Hill for Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), Congressman Fofo I.F. Sunia (D-Am. Samoa), the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation and the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. A graduate of the Marist Brothers' School in American Samoa and Menlo College in Atherton, California, Mr. Pula has pursued further studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the youngest son of the renowned Tofa Nikolao Iuli Pula Sr. (later Tuiteleleapaga Nikolao), one of the founders of the public school system in American Samoa. Mr. Pula and his wife, Lois Phillips Pula, R.N., B.S.N., make their home in Annandale, Virginia. They have six grown children.
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