HAPA Team
-
Executive Director
☎ (808) 212-9616 x1
Anne Frederick has served as the Executive Director of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) since 2015. HAPA grows out of the movement to protect communities from the harmful and extractive practices of the agrochemical industry in Hawaiʻi. Her work centers on honoring people’s connection to place and organizing in support of community-led decision making for neighborhoods, land use, natural resource management, food ways and systems of governance. Prior to her time at HAPA she co-founded and directed the community planning and design non-profit, Hester Street from 2002-2014.
-
Reclaiming Democracy Program Director
☎ (808) 212-9616 x3
Aria Castillo is a keiki ʻo ka ʻāina (born and raised) on the island of Kauaʻi. After graduating from college and living in Los Angeles for a few years, she returned home to work in marketing but found a passion for local politics instead. Since 2014, she has worked on various campaigns on the state and county levels for political movements, candidates, and PACS. Aria was a founding board member of HAPA, the co-founder of Kuleana Academy, and serves as the Program Advisor and head of KAʻs selection committee.
-
Pesticides & Public Health Campaign Director & Environmental Scientist
☎ (808) 212-9616 x2
Fern Ānuenue Holland was born and raised on Kauaʻi and has been active in local issues relating to heavy pesticide use, land management, native ecosystem restoration, food sovereignty, and regenerative agriculture locally for over a decade. She received her Bachelor of Science with triple majors in Wildlife Management, Environmental Science and Marine Biology from Griffith University’s School of Environment on the Gold Coast in Australia in 2009. Since 2024, Fern has served as a member of the Kauaʻi County Council.
Since then, Holland has worked professionally as an environmental scientist and consultant for ecological, contaminated land and other environmental assessments, both in Hawaiʻi and overseas.
Holland was an integral part of the development and passing of Kauaʻi County Bill 2491 for disclosure, buffers and protections related to biotech experimental research practices. She also organized the 2013 March in March in Poipu and later the September Mana March in Lihue for the passing of Bill 2491. Holland worked closely on and is featured in the award winning documentary, Poisoning Paradise. She has worked for over 15 years on environmental justice issues associated with industrialized agriculture and biotech pesticide and GE experimentation in Hawaiʻi and globally.
Holland is also a graduate of HAPA’s 1st cohort from the Kuleana Academy and ran for the House of Representatives in District 14 in 2016 and Kauaʻi County Council in 2022. She is a founding board member of I Ola Wailuanui, the Kauaʻi based non profit that is working to restore the Wailua fishpond and agricultural systems and protect the former Coco Palms parcels for the betterment of community and the environment.
-
Communications Manager
☎ (808) 212-9616 x5
Kencho Gurung grew up predominantly in South and Southeast Asia and belongs to a tribe Indigenous to the Himalayas.
Since childhood, Kencho has been a fierce advocate for equality. The struggles for racial justice, LGBTQ+ justice, climate justice, animal justice and a free Palestine are near to her heart. Kencho’s biracial identity and adolescence spent in three continents have taught her to value intersectionality, and she nurtures a tireless ambition to dismantle white supremacy.
Kencho is a Kuleana Academy graduate, food justice advocate, organizer, volunteer and educator and hopes to continue helping to strengthen the progressive movement in Hawaiʻi. Kencho is motivated to action every single day by her love for Black and Brown communities, and for Hawaiians and Indigenous People across the world fighting against systems of colonialism and white supremacy.
-
Kuleana Academy Program Coordinator
Nadia Alves is a first generation immigrant to the United States. Born in Cape Verde, an island nation on the west coast of Africa, she immigrated to the US along with her family at the age of twelve. Growing up in a working class family, Nadia is acutely aware of the challenges people face due to our societal shortcomings and the importance that politics play in shaping the realities of countless families like hers. She is a Kuleana Academy alum, a passionate advocate for racial, economic and social justice, and a campaign manager for various local campaigns and causes. Nadia has served as co-chair on the board of Young Progressives Demanding Action (YPDA), the organizing director of Wolf-PAC Hawaiʻi, and currently serves as an office manager at the State Legislature.
-
Operations Manager
Jaela was raised by the fruitful ʻili ʻāina of Kūkanono in Kailua, Oʻahu. She studied Political Science and Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, devoting her time to understanding Transformative Justice in Hawaiʻi. Jaela continues to draw from her multi-ethnic genealogy to explore the practices that promote accountability, care, and nourish our communities. She is currently the Director of Operations with Wisdom Circles Oceania, and a koʻokua of Kalauokekahuli. Prior to her role with HAPA, she served in roles spanning from direct services for parents of young children to systems change work as a nonprofit Program Manager and Executive Director. As a new makua, Jaela feels her most notable contribution to the Lāhui Hawaiʻi is striving to raise her keiki through the language and practices of her kūpuna.
-
Communications Organizer
Leo Nahe is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi, raised in Waiʻehu, Maui. She studied Environmental Studies and Sociology at Gonzaga University, spending most of her time learning about the intricacies of the US food system. Today, she spends most of her time taking care of ʻāina and building pilina with lāhui. Leo Nahe has her hands in many projects across the paeʻāina, including free stands/tool libraries and other mutual aid systems, and strives to support her community in whatever capacity is needed.
-
Development Manager
Adele Balderston is a geographer, urban planner, and social practice artist whose work spans public programming, community engagement, historic preservation, and environmental justice. Growing up in a multiracial family in Ko‘olaupoko, O‘ahu taught her to value diverse perspectives and recognize the complexities of place, shaping her personal and professional practice at the intersection of geography, art, and activism. She is the founder of 88 Block Walks, an ongoing series of walking tour/performances that use multimedia storytelling to illuminate place knowledge, advocate for community agency, and challenge dominant narratives of urban development. Her work has received support from the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, Interisland Terminal, the Pu‘uhonua Society, and Hawai’i’s Social Impact Incubator Program. In 2018, she was an Equal Justice Artist Resident at the Santa Fe Art Institute, exploring themes of displacement and urban inequality.Adele is a graduate of the Kuleana Academy’s 6th Cohort and has been engaged in grassroots organizing and environmental advocacy in Hawai'i since 2013. She has served on Honolulu Neighborhood Boards 11 (Makīkī) and 14 (Liliha/Alewa/Pu‘unui) and currently holds leadership roles in the Sierra Club O‘ahu Group Executive Committee and the Sierra Club Hawai‘i Litigation Committee. Adele has an MA in Geography and GIS from Hunter College (CUNY) and a BA in New Media Communication Studies from New York University. She is currently pursuing a JD at the University of Hawai‘i’s William S. Richardson School of Law to deepen her understanding of 'āina justice.
Board of Directors
-
President & Board Member
Pualiʻiliʻimaikalani Rossi is from the ahupuaʻa of Wailua on the mokupuni of Kauaʻi. She holds a B.A. in Hawaiian Studies and in Anthropology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and an M.A. in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is an assistant professor of Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian Language at Kauaʻi Community College. Understanding that we must look to the past to be successful in our future, Pua has a specific interest in natural resource management and restoring our traditional food production systems. With the same intention, she also works towards the preservation of Wailuniaho'āno and serves as president of I Ola Wailuanui. She is also a mom of two boys.
-
Board Member
Karen Shishido is a sustainability consultant in Honolulu working in design and construction. Raised in Waipahu, she attended Occidental College (A.B.) and the University of Delaware, where she received a master's degree in Energy and Environmental Policy. Her research focused on land use and environmental justice in Hawaiʻi. Karen has previously worked as a coastal zone planner and energy analyst for the State of Hawaiʻi. She is passionate about food security, energy, and recovering the democratic process through community empowerment. She has served on the boards of several Hawaiʻi environmental and good government organizations.
-
Secretary & Board Member
Michael Miranda has several years of experience in the non-profit sector, specifically in the labor movement and facilitating and developing after school programs. For the past four years, he has been working as a social worker with the State of Hawaii, Judiciary. Michael has keen interests in Filipino culture and volunteers on several local boards with a focus on education and capacity building. Michael lives on Kauai and hunts for free shipping in his free time.
-
Board Member
Andrea Brower is an activist and scholar from Kaua‘i. She is an assistant professor in the Solidarity & Social Justice Program with Gonzaga University's Department of Sociology. Her research, writing, and teaching on capitalism, colonialism, the environment, food, and agriculture is embedded in social movements for justice, equality, liberation, and ecological regeneration. She recently published a book on the agrochemical industry in Hawaiʻi.
-
Board Member
Walter Ritte Jr. is a hunter and Hawaiian activist now working on the restoration of traditional fishponds and educational programs based Hawaiian culture. He was involved in stopping the bombing by the US Navy of the Hawaiian Island of Kahoʻolawe and was one of the Kahoʻolawe Nine who made the first protest landing on Kahoʻolawe on January 4, 1976. Ritte also served in the 1978 Hawaiʻi State Constitutional Convention which established the recognition of Hawaiian Gathering Rights and he was also one of the first elected trustees to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Ritte is married with four children and seven grand children and resides on the island of Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi.
-
Board Member
Malu Shizue Miki is the owner of Abundant Life Natural Foods in Hilo. She was born and raised on Oʻahu, but has lived on Hawaiʻi Island for the last 48 years. Malu is a passionate advocate for healthy agriculture and protecting our natural environment.
-
Treasurer & Board Member
Councilmember Rawlins Fernandez a kupa’aina of Molokai and mother of a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, who drive her passion for creating a world better than she found it. She was raised by a family intimately connected to 'āina. which instilled in her the importance of the reciprocal relationship between people and place.
She's a graduate of Molokai High School, with her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations, a Master's Degree in Business Administration, and a law degree with certificates specializing in Environmental Law and Native Hawaiian Law.
She is honored to serve the people and ‘āina of Molokaʻi, Maui, Lāna‘i, and Kaho‘olawe and is working to ensure that our community’s voice is centered in decision-making, that our ‘āina is protected, and that our people are cared for.
-
Board Member
Dyson Chee is a youth advocate living on the Hawaiian Island of Oʻahu. In 2018, Dyson founded Project O.C.E.A.N. Hawaii to take on single-use plastics, and from 2019 to 2024 he served as a director for the Hawaiʻi Youth Climate Coalition (HYCC), a youth-led community advocacy organization dedicated to fighting for climate justice. Dyson has been active in the community since the age of 14 and has been recognized for his volunteerism by a variety of entities, including the Hawaiʻi State Senate and the White House. Now in his early 20s, Dyson is a recent graduate from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and his degree is in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Communicology, Economics, and Political Science. In his free time, Dyson loves playing tennis, drinking boba tea, and chilling at the beach.
-
Board Member
Kaiea Medeiros is an aloha ʻāina champion, maoli cultural practitioner, and mahiʻai born and raised in Pukalani, Maui. He serves as the Maui County Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Advocate, where he champions legislation and policy change at all levels of government. The purpose of his hana is to secure and sustain the health, healing, and well-being of our kānaka maoli, immigrant, minority, and most dispossessed farmers, agricultural producers, and aloha ʻāina champions here in Hawaiʻi and across Papahanaumoku (Mother Earth). All while developing a resilient, sustainable, and pono food system that is circular, hyper localized, and economically viable. Moreover and most importantly, he puts mauka to makai stream flow, a thriving endemic ecology, kupuna ʻike, land back, and water back at the forefront of this effort and kuleana. Additionally, he currently serves as the co-lead for the Natural and Cultural Resources Branch of the Maui County’s Office of Recovery for both Lahaina and Kula. Kaiea is an alumnus of Kuleana Academy’s 7th cohort.
Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka ‘Āina I Ka Pono. The Life, Breathe, and Sovereignty, of the Lands and Waters that Feed and Sustain, are Perpetuated, Protected, and Proliferated, in Balance, Symbiosis, and Reciprocity. Aloha ‘Āina ʻOiaʻiʻo. Ea ‘Āina ʻOiaʻiʻo.
-
Board Member
Dr. Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio is the Dean of Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. He is married to Mary Carol Dunn and has fathered six children, all reasonably well adjusted human beings. Dr. Osorio received his PhD in History from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1996 and was on the faculty of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, serving as director of the Center from 2003 to 2008. As a professor, he has collaborated with numerous other faculty and students in many departments to bring recognition for indigenous knowledge, championing Hawaiian language, performing arts and the study of Hawaiian and Pacific Islands history and contemporary issues through conferences, forums and publications. He has published broadly and both of his books, Dismembering Lāhui (2002) and The Value of Hawaiʻi (2010), co-edited with Craig Howes, have won local publishing awards. Dean Osorio serves on several boards and committees in support of Hawaiian sovereignty and protection of sacred places in Hawaiʻi. He is a composer and singer and has been a Hawaiian music recording artist since 1975.