About

Pula’ali’i Nikolao Iuli Tuiteleleapaga Pula is the youngest son of twelve children of Nikolao Iuli Tuiteleleapaga Pula, Sr. from the village of Leone & Oloalilo Ta’afulisia Simanuali’i Afoa Lutu Molio’o from the villages of Utulei, Fagatogo, and Pago Pago.  His father was one of the pioneers of the public school system in American Samoa.   His mother was a strong woman of faith that valued honesty and hard work.  He is married to his wife Lois Phillips-Pula, Ph.D., a retired professor from the Georgetown University School of Nursing.

Pula’ali’i attended Catholic schools in his primary years, and later graduated from Marist Brothers High School, Atu’u, American Samoa as the valedictorian in 1974. He continued his undergraduate studies at Menlo College in Atheron, California, and later continued at Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah. Upon his junior year at BYU Provo, he received his calling in 1978 to serve a mission in Upolu, Savaii, and Tutuila. He would later return to his studies at the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Upon completion of his mission, Pula worked a short stint at the American Samoa Fono Legislature in the Reference Bureau. In 1981, he relocated to the mainland Washington D.C. and worked for Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye as a special assistant for a year and half. He later worked as a legislative assistant to Congressman Fofo I.F. Sunia of American Samoa, and was the staff director of the Subcommittee on Public Building and Grounds of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation. While on Capitol Hill for eleven years, he held different positions for both the House of Representatives, and the US Senate; he also worked for Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. In 1993, he later joined the Department of Interior (DOI) Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) as the Policy Desk Officer for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), and later he became the Policy Division Director.

At OIA from 1999 to 2002, he was immersed in a pivotal role and served as Acting Director of OIA. In August 2002, under the President Bush Administration and despite the expectation of many, Pula Nikolao was appointed as the Director of OIA. The position, normally a political appointee, was pronounced by deputy assistant secretary of Interior David B. Cohen, that because of Pula’s ability to navigate the role, a bipartisan approach was implemented. Cohen further stated about the selection, “Nik has a great amount of credibility with Republicans and Democrats alike, both on Capitol Hill, and in this administration.” Nik would be the first Pacific Islander of Samoan ancestry to be the DOI’s Director of Insular Affairs. During his tenure, he also served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Insular Affairs from January-September 2009, and January-February and July 2014. He would serve as the Director of DOI-OIA for the next twenty years from 2002 to 2022 when he retired as a Career (Senior Executive Service) Director of the Office of Insular Affairs of the Department of the Interior.

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