Iemaima Vaai recently moved home to Samoa and works for Conservation International Samoa as the Program Communications Associate for the Samoa Ocean Strategy (SOS). She is of Samoan descent, has an academic background in climate change and environmental management, and specializes in loss and damage. She has extensive ground research experience in climate-induced displacement and relocation in the Pacific and its relation to loss of culture, identity, and indigenous knowledge.

She is an ecological stewardship and climate justice activist at heart. She has formerly worked and volunteered in and out of the NGO—non-profit space in Fiji, focusing on climate justice, conservation, decolonization, the revival of Indigenous knowledge, community engagement and resilience, and youth empowerment.