board of directors
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lance d. collins

president

An attorney in private practice primarily on the island of Maui, his legal work focuses on assisting community groups and families aloha ʻāina. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His research interests focus on the comparative legal histories of Hawai'i and the Philippines before and during the American colonial period. For the last six years, he has served on the international Philippine Studies Association Board of Trustees. He is co-editor and contributing author of Tourism Impacts West Maui and Social Change in West Maui as well as author of several published journal articles. He is also the compiler and indexer of the 17 volume Proceedings of the Charter Commissions of the County of Maui (1963-2012).

Keliʻi Ruth

vice PRESIDENT

A native of ʻAiea, Oʻahu, is a faculty member at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education, where he works on the Kaiapuni Assessment of Educational Outcomes (KĀʻEO) project in the Curriculum Studies Department. He has also served for the past nine years as a teacher and manager of Naʻau Learning Center, an academic enrichment organization dedicated to educating Hawaiʻi’s youth. Keliʻi’s love for Hawaiian language, which was first kindled while a student at Kamehameha Schools Kapālama, led him to obtain Bachelor’s degrees in both Hawaiian Language and Hawaiian Studies and a Master’s degree in Hawaiian Language from UH Mānoa. As a chant student of Dr. Kalena Silva, Keliʻi is committed to the preservation and  perpetuation of mele, particularly mele oli, in its traditional form. His studies of Hawaiian language and traditional Hawaiian chant continue to nurture his passion to promote mele as a revered form of knowledge documentation and transmission that is still relevant today.

Kim-Hee Kanoe Wong

TREASURER

Kanoe brings a background in oral history, a passion for archival materials, and aloha for mele Hawaiʻi to Kāhuli Leo Leʻa. Raised in Wahiawā, O‘ahu, Kim-Hee is a proud graduate of Punahou School. In 2018, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Ethnic Studies from the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa where she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. As an undergraduate student, Kim-Hee participated in Nā Ko‘oko‘o: A Hawaiian Leadership Program and served as the 2017 Francis & Sarah Sogi Fellow at the Asian Pacific American Center in Washington, D.C. Recently, Kim-Hee earned a Master of Arts degree in Oral History from Columbia University, where she was the first recipient of the Indigenous Oral History Award and the Future Voices Fellowship.  Currently, Kim-Hee is a content developer at DTL, LLC where she works to strengthen the pilina between culture and communities. Kim-Hee is also an instructor for the North Shore Ethnographic Field School and a member of Hālau Nā Mamo o Puʻuanahulu.

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Keely S. Kauʻilani Rivera

SECRETARY

​A kupa of Pukalani, Maui, Keely’s Hawaiian cultural foundation was first established through her tutelage under Hālau Nā Lei Kaumaka O Uka. Upon graduating from Kamehameha Schools Maui in 2009, she went on to further her education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. In 2013, she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Haʻawina Hawaiʻi under Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, a second degree in Anthropology under the College of Arts and Sciences, and a minor in History with an emphasis in Hawaiian History. Following completion of these degrees, Keely then graduated with a master’s degree in Applied Archaeology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where she completed a capstone project focusing on Hawaiian female cultural sites and 19th century perspectives against women and menstruation. Her archaeological studies have provided her with many opportunities to work with and in various communities throughout Hawaiʻi, namely: Kaʻūpūlehu, Kona; Waiʻāpuka, Kohala; Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi; and Hālawa, Oʻahu. Presently, Keely is a faculty member at Punahou School in Mānoa, Oʻahu, where she works as a Hawaiian language teacher in their Academy as well as a limahana of Kuaihelani Learning Center. She currently resides in Waiʻanae, Oʻahu, with her kāne Frank Kaʻiuokalani and their beautiful and healthy daughters, Emma Hāliʻi and Evelyn Iunia.