State Representative Matthew S. LoPresti, Ph.D. (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) is beginning his first session in the Hawai'i State House, currently serving as Vice-Chair of the House Transportation Committee, and member of Education, Higher Education, Labor & Public Employment committees and the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Rep. LoPresti is Chair of the Asian Studies Program at Hawai'i Pacific University and has been teaching philosophy since 1999. While at HPU (since 2004) he has expanded his teaching to include courses in religious studies and the inter-disciplinary humanities.
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Rep. LoPresti had the pleasure to serve various philosophy programs around the world while a graduate student. Between 1999 and 2005 he had been invited to teach philosophy in India, Hawai'i, Ohio, and West Virginia - where he was awarded a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship to bring Buddhist Philosophy to one of the country's largest land-grant universities. In 2003 he was invited to serve as Lecturer of Buddhist Philosophy and Field Research Advisor for the Antioch Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya, India for American university students studying abroad.
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For the past 15 years Rep. LoPresti has served as a volunteer locally in numerous community organizations, including the Limu Project, painting over graffiti throughout 'Ewa Beach as a volunteer with HPD's Weed & Seed officers and kids from the Boys and Girls Club, serving as a judge for Hawai'i student Speech and Debate tournaments, and serving on the 'Ewa Neighborhood Board. He was elected twice to the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club, O'ahu Group twice and served as its Vice Chair. Rep. LoPresti has taken on entrepreneurial projects starting two businesses and co-founding an innovative renewable energy company to help our island community achieve energy independence through renewable resources and encouraging cradle-to-grave recycling efforts to reduce our waste stream.
His focus as a legislator is to bring greater confidence and trust back to government, constantly improve the quality of public education and ensure that Leeward O'ahu has the transportation and government infrastructure it deserves.