Following a devastating series of cyberattacks that took down her digital archives, Lisa Hartouni ’80 has launched a campaign to rebuild her web infrastructure, safeguard 40 years of documentary history and finalize “From Here to Manzanar,” an extensive archival and testimonial project documenting the forced removal of Japanese Americans from Terminal Island during World War II. The project combines photography with interviews and written testimony from people who were interned.

Hartouni, who majored in anthropology, is a documentary photojournalist, web designer and community organizer who has spent over four decades chronicling Southern California’s social-justice movements. Her career embodies the UCLA ethos of public service, spanning from 1980s VISTA community organizing to classroom-based visual literacy projects across Southern California.

In 2015, Hartouni was named a finalist for the Long Beach Press Telegram’s “Amazing Women” award in the Arts and Culture category for “Intersections: Portraits of Neighborhoods,” an ongoing project she began in 2008 after moving to Long Beach. What started as photographs taken on morning dog walks grew into a classroom-based project used in more than a dozen 5th-grade and university classes and roughly 450 students, supported in part by a small grant from ArtRelease. The project asks participants — from 5th graders to university students — to walk their own neighborhoods and photograph what catches their attention, building civic awareness along the way. An exhibition of “Intersections” images was shown at Hot Java in Long Beach.