Ka Makani Impact

Michael Rikio Ming He Ho has exhibited widely since graduating from UCLA in 2018, with solo shows in Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei, and participation in numerous international art fairs. He is represented by Kotaro Nukaga Gallery and has received recognition for his innovative approach to contemporary art. His text-based works engage with contemporary cultural and linguistic phenomena, reflecting the ephemeral and mutable nature of language in the digital age.

Jordan Virtue’s undergraduate thesis at Harvard, which focused on William Faulkner, won the Hoopes Prize. Virtue earned her master’s degree at the University of Cambridge and is now studying at Stanford, where her research explores the political and cultural history of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The Atlantic published her essay, “How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost Cause,” in 2023.

Since the early 1980s, Jimmy Greenwell has dedicated himself to a career in real estate and land management issues. He has had a particular focus on the responsibility and importance of Hawai‘i’s cattlemen stewarding the natural resources on which they rely. In 2014, the Hawai‘i Rangeland Stewardship Foundation was established, which he later chaired for five years. As Greenwell frequently notes, Hawai‘i’s rangelands constitute 20 percent of the state’s total land mass and should be nurtured as a vital sustainable community resource, a strategy that benefits not only the agricultural sector but also the ecosystems that are essential to Hawai‘i’s broader community.

At a time when plastic pollution and other land-based debris are overwhelming the world’s oceans and beaches, Jasmine (Jazzy) Buerano ’17 and her team at SCH work to create proactive change through their large-scale beach cleanups, consumer education, local partnerships, social media, and more, inspiring communities to care for coastlines.

A deep lesson of growing up in the Lee ‘ohana is “Take care of the land, and it takes care of you.” Justin Lee lives the family motto in multiple ways. A former member of the USA National spearfishing team (he placed 9th in the world in 2016), Lee feeds family and friends from the ocean and land. He’s also part of the Lee family team that operates Hāloa ‘Āina, founded by his father, Wade, and managing partners who together envisioned a new generation of forestry management in Hawai‘i. Hāloa ‘Āina operates not as a traditional sandalwood plantation, where trees are grown in monoculture and are harvested whole, but as an ongoing ecosystem placed in conservation easement and dedicated to sustainable Hawaiian forest practices.

Lisa Hall-Anderson has devoted the bulk of her research career to understanding the genetic underpinnings of X-chromosome inactivation in females and its possible utility as a gene therapy for trisomy diseases like Down syndrome. In 2013, she co-authored a landmark study with lead researcher Dr. Jeanne Lawrence, published in the journal Nature, on silencing the extra chromosome in Down syndrome patient cells. She is also an award-winning associate professor at the Chan Medical School where she teaches human genetics to first-year medical students.

Leala Humbert launched Ua Body in 2020, building on a legacy her mother, Alice, began 30 years ago. An international brand with stores now in Hawai‘i and Japan, Ua Body prioritizes sustainable business practices in an industry where that is not usually the case. Their additive-free, vegan skin care products were featured in a New York Times line-up of Hawai‘i-based skin care brands. Ua Body products are all handcrafted in small batches in a Waimea workshop, and the company partners with local farmers and producers to nurture Hawai‘i’s economy.

Chris English and his wife, Sabrina, are continuing a 40-year family commitment begun by Sabrina’s father, Pono von Holt. At Ponoholo Ranch, intensive rotational grazing is used to maximize cattle nutrition and minimize overgrazing and erosion. Through holistic management practices, the Englishes are helping to preserve the Kohala Watershed and some of the most pristine native forests left on the island.

For pioneering the development of high-precision, super-resolution microscopies, Suliana Manley was recently elected as a fellow of the The American Physical Society, the world’s largest organization of physicists. Manley is the founding director of the Laboratory of Experimental Biophysics at EPFL where her work has led to breakthroughs in our understanding of mitochondrial organization and dynamics.

A Native Hawaiian, Nani Welch Keli‘iho‘omalu documents the complexity and nuance of the contemporary Hawaiian experience. Through a combination of analog and digital photography, she recreates the multifaceted and layered histories that she finds herself placed within. Her work has appeared with Sig Zane, Marriott Bonvoy, Nike ACG, and OluKai, among others. By using imagery of the natural landscapes and people who form her surroundings, she expresses a gratitude for what has shaped and influenced her identity.

For two decades, Kenji Matsumoto’s dedication to global health has taken him to countries like Tanzania and Swaziland, collaborating with local health ministries and the World Health Organization to control infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 epidemic, he joined the Navy and Marine Corps’ EpiData Center, enhancing infectious disease surveillance. By monitoring military health data, Matsumoto and his team have significantly advanced protection strategies against disease transmission among U.S. service members and the global community.

Abigail Ruane is a globally-recognized advocate, thought leader, and organizer with experience and expertise on human rights, sustainable development, and inclusive peacemaking. At the United Nations, Ruane is part of the Gender, Peace, and Security Unit where her international coalition-building and strategic policy work open doors for women to become part of peace processes and for the outcomes to address women’s lives.

After leaving HPA, center Max Unger played college football at the University of Oregon, earning All-American honors and multiple first-team All-Conference selections. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2009 and quickly earned a reputation as a hard and reliable worker who was beloved by coaches and teammates alike during his NFL tenure. He won a 2013 Super Bowl ring with the Seahawks and later anchored the middle of the line for the New Orleans Saints from 2015 to 2018. Today he’s back home on Hawai‘i Island, serving on the HPA board of trustees and devoting himself to family, friends, and community.

In her late 20s, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto learned that her mother and grandmother had been held in a Japanese incarceration camp during the 1940s. The revelation led to Rizzuto’s first novel, Why She Left Us, and two subsequent books, which she considers an informal triptych of the Japanese American experience during World War II. Hiroshima in the Morning, based on interviews with atomic bomb survivors, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, among many other accolades. Shadow Child mixes elements of mystery and historical fiction to explore the long shadow our histories can cast.

As the fifth-generation leader of HPM Building Supply, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021, Jason Fujimoto has spent his entire life surrounded by the materials of home building. But HPM deals in far more than just metal, wood, and concrete. The company is deeply committed to helping Hawai‘i live better. Among HPM’s many philanthropic and local reinvestment strategies is a new line of small, factory-built starter homes to help address Hawai‘i’s affordable housing crisis.

Dan Pathomvanich is a climate change activist and plant-based advocate, committed to a lower carbon future through food-system transformation. In 2017, as executive director of Hatton Capital, Pathomvanich acquired NR Instant Produce, a leading global manufacturer of sustainably-produced foods. He is transforming the company into a worldwide platform called NRF, seeking to find solutions that can feed ten billion people by 2050 while also decarbonizing our planet. Believing technology and innovation will enable change, he seeks to develop a global ecosystem of startups through NRF’s corporate venture investments.

In the department of Human-Centered Design and Engineering, Twigg-Smith is studying and building software for digital fabrication machines (like 3D printers and laser cutters), focusing specifically on knitting machines. She is part of Machine Agency, a UW research group whose goal is to “harness the precision of machines for the creativity of individuals.” Recently, she created KnitScape, a browser tool that visualizes “slip and tuck” stitch patterns. Twigg-Smith earned her undergraduate degree from Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, interning with places like Google and Accenture Labs.

Mana Purdy has been with Lili‘uokalani Trust (LT) for more than 10 years, serving in roles related to conservation, community, and empowering Hawaiian youth. To help the most vulnerable Native Hawaiian children live “healthy, joyful, and prosperous lives,” LT offers culturally grounded social services and youth development programs. With a footprint on six islands, LT supports thousands of kamali‘i and their ‘ohana from conception to age 26 on their journeys from trauma to thriving.

While working on his master’s degree (University of Hawai‘i) and doctorate (Stanford), Sean Vitousek grew increasingly fascinated by numerical simulation, using computers to solve physics problems that can’t be solved by hand. Today, his life’s work is to understand the physics of the ocean and coasts, and how they change over time. His research and computer models are aimed at helping civic leaders and communities to better predict and cope with sea-level rise and other climate change hazards.

Sienna Rogers helps navigate the complex landscape of finance, regulations, climate change, and consumer demand for one of the largest utilities in the United States. PG&E serves 1 in 20 Americans, and over her 18 years with the company, Rogers has played a major role in helping PG&E strive toward its goal (mandated by state law) of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. She’s also charged with developing and implementing strategies to improve PG&E’s overall financial strength while ensuring the utility can meet public demand in an ever-changing landscape.