Resume
Work
Experience
2022 - Present
Impact Residency, HIR
In 2022, I was tapped for HIRʻs first-ever Impact Residency, as HIR works to expand and deepen community-building in its core work. Residencies have been successfully used by companies, organizations and agencies around the globe for catalyzing creativity, co-learning and co-creation, and accessing a greater multiplicity of perspectives, approaches, and tools. Today, I serve as HIR’s first “Artist-in-Residence,” bringing the richness my experiences and the wisdom of my many teachers to the “art of community-building” at HIR. My primary role at HIR is to provide mentorship and co-create community-building practices with the HIR team.
2021
Sabbatical
I was introduced to the concept of sabbaticals for Executive Directors and workers of all kinds, by Kevin Pujanowski of Social Movement Technology. I spent nearly a year researching the concept, and in April 2021 embarked upon a nine-month sabbatical for myself. I am ever-changed because. There is a growing movement for the necessity of rest: "Change starts with shifting the narrative that rest is earned or deserved. Rest is essential, as essential as food, yet within racist, patriarchal, and capitalistic systems, the exhaustion of BIPOC executive directors has been the status quo." - BIPOC Ed Coalition
2011 - 2021
Co-Director, KUA
From 2011 – 2021, I served as a co-founder and co-leader of Kua‘āina Ulu ‘Auamo (KUA), a backbone organization for three inter-related networks serving 1,000 fishers, farmers and families from over 70 communities in Hawaiʻi working to steward ancestral lands and waters. In my time at KUA, I raised millions of dollars in support of community-based natural resource management initiatives, and grew the organization to a staff of 10 with an annual budget ~$1M. In that time, I led the design of KUA’s foundational program philosophy, program design, organizational structure, and moral compass.
2007 - 2011
Executive Director, KAHEA
I served as the Executive Director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, a grassroots advocacy non-profit committed to indigenous land rights and environmental protections. Together with counsel Marti Townsend, our team and working groups, I helped lead successful advocacy efforts together with impacted communities for inter-generational protections for Mauna Kea, perpetuation of agriculture on lands in the community of Waiʻanae, and bioprospecting prohibitions for Paphānaumokuākea. We grew KAHEA's action alert network from 2,000 individuals to over 20,000 in that time.
2000 - 2007
Professional experiences from this period include: Policy and Communications Director for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, work on research projects with Tanzania National Parks + Conservation Strategy Fund, Natural Equity, the California Clean Boater Network, Americorps service, volunteer service with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, and an internship with the Rafu Shimpo.
Institutional Education
2000
University of Southern California | B.A./M.A., Economics
Joint-BA/MA in Economics, honors thesis on urban open space, National Merit Scholar, Presidential Scholar and grant recipient.
1999
Boston University | School for Field Studies
Field studies and directed research on subsistence and commercial blue crab fisheries in Magdalena Bay, Mexico.
Other Professional Service + Learning
Hawaii Alliance for Community-based Economic Development (HACBED)
Life of the Land
Board Service
Learning Cohorts
Hālau ʻOhiʻa, ʻUkoʻa
Alternative Economy MBA (LIFT Economy), Cohort VIII