Ezra Sasao
Founder
With more than a decade of experience in LGBTQIA+ advocacy, peer recovery, and community engagement, Ezra brings a unique combination of lived experience, professional expertise, and cross-cultural advocacy to their work. Their experience spans LGBTQIA+ communities, veteran and justice-involved populations, substance use recovery, and Pasifika human rights advocacy.
They represented the Republic of Palau at the 1st Pacific Human Rights Conference in the Kingdom of Tonga, advocating for PIDSOGIESC+ rights across Pasifika. Their professional background also includes active duty military service and work as a Registered Peer Recovery Specialist, supporting individuals as they navigate recovery, connect with resources, and build lives on their own terms.
A strong advocate for harm reduction, they bring practical knowledge of naloxone education, recovery resources, and person-centered support to substance use recovery spaces. Their approach is grounded in compassion, authenticity, and respect for each person's lived experience. Their greatest strength is their ability to connect with communities from a place of genuine understanding. They believe lived experience is a powerful tool for advocacy and are passionate about creating spaces where people feel seen, heard, supported, and empowered to tell their own stories.
I'm a Palauan (Micronesian), Community Advocate and Recovering Artist.
Ezra provides peer-led consultation, community advocacy, group facilitation, resource navigation, and culturally responsive support for individuals, organizations, and communities working to create more inclusive and accessible spaces for Queer and Trans Pacific Islanders. Their services are especially valuable for disabled veterans, justice-involved individuals, people with lived experience of substance use or recovery. They can support organizations through PIDSOGIESC+ training, harm reduction education, recovery-focused programming, and conversations that center lived experience resource navigation. They also bring creative skills in writing, graphic design, photography, and storytelling that can help organizations communicate their mission, share community stories, and develop meaningful outreach materials. Whether helping someone navigate resources, facilitating a peer support group, training a team on culturally responsive practices, or helping an organization better understand the communities it serves, their approach is grounded in lived experience, compassion, dignity, and meeting people where they are.
Work Experience
2024- Present Founder, Meliu is a queer duo and lived-experience–driven initiative focused on recovery, harm reduction, and culturally grounded support for Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Rooted in community care and Indigenous knowledge, Meliu works to bridge gaps in behavioral health systems by uplifting culturally humble practices, peer support, and a harm reduction approach to wellness and recovery. Through education, advocacy, and storytelling, Meliu aims to reimagine recovery in ways that honor culture, resilience, and collective healing.
Education
2025-2028 Old Dominion University Human Services: Addiction Prevention & Treatment
Professional skills
Peer recovery oriented frameworks, trauma-informed and person-centered psychoeducation, lived experience in mental health and substance use treatment and recovery, harm reduction centered practice, cultural integration, AANHPI, disabled veteran.
Team
Ezra Sasao
