Courtney-Savali Andrews is a co-founder of Black Pacific Alliance (BPA) and specifically serves as a speaker and program facilitator concerned with articulating Pasifika and Africana histories, legacies of Euro-American colonization within them and the translation of particular issues of anti-blackness at work in the Pasifika community experienced by those of us who identify as Afro-Pacific.  

Born and raised in Duwamish Territory Seattle, Washington, Savali is of African American and Samoan heritage (Nua ma Se’etaga, Amanave, and Safotu) and is currently Assistant Professor of African American and African Diasporic Musics at her alma mater Oberlin College in Ohio. She is an ethnomusicologist, pianist, and musical director whose performance career and areas of research focus on her respective cultural heritages: Black musical expressions in the Pacific, Samoan musical histories, classical music by Black and Samoan composers, African American gospel, reggae, and folk music traditions between the Black Atlantic and Black Pacific. 

Prior to joining the faculty at Oberlin College in 2020, Savali performed and taught extensively in the Pacific while living between Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Samoa for 13 years. She is currently a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology and Pacific Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She also holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Masters of Music degrees from Arizona State University; and a double Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies from Oberlin College.