Kaulunani Staff
Heather McMillen, PhD
Hawaiʻi State Urban Forester | Kaulunani Program Coordinator | ISA Certified Arborist, Email
Heather (she/her) sees trees as a connector to our places, and our collective health, wellbeing and resilience. She was born in the volcanic landscape of Kilimanjaro, grew up in the US continental mid-west, and for the last 25 years has found home in the volcanic landscapes of O‘ahu, most recently in Pālolo. She is an ISA certified arborist, has a PhD in Anthropology with foci in conservation biology and ethnobiology, and is a humble learner of wood carving, lauhala weaving, and tree pruning. In her spare time she likes to meditate underwater and sing to fish.
Kate Wiechmann
Community Partnership Coordinator, Email
Koki Atcheson
IRA Community Partnership Coordinator, Email
Koki Atcheson (she/her) helps our Kaulunani program and partnerships grow with support from the Inflation Reduction Act. She first started at Kaulunani as a Kupu Member from the Conservation Leadership Development Program in early 2023. She also has experience in invasive species outreach and conservation advocacy communications.
She attended high school at Pacific Buddhist Academy and studied environmental science at Colorado College. A fun fact about Koki is that she loves to sew and daydreams about the connections between sustainability and crafting!
Leʻa Kaʻahaʻaina
Communications Associate, Email
Leʻa Kaʻahaʻaina (she/her) leads communication and outreach efforts for Kaulunani through our social media channels, website, newsletter, and in-person events. She was born and raised in Waimānalo, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu, where she continues to reside with her ʻohana. She’s dedicated her career to creating opportunities to engage with our environment and reciprocate through aloha.
Malia Staab
Campus Forester, Email
Malia Staab (she/her) was born in Mānoa and now calls Wailupe valley in Maunalua, Oʻahu, home. Malia finds community and connection through work with native Hawaiian plants, and educating the next generation of informed stewards. She works with Kaulunani as the Urban Forestry Education Liason to enhance care and understanding of the value of trees on school campuses.
Malia is an ISA certified arborist with a master’s in Environmental Management from UH Mānoa. Malia spends her free time exploring different parts of Oʻahu and growing native plants for friends and neighbors.
Indrajit Gunasekara
Community Coconut Program Director, Email
Indrajit Kumara Samarasingha Gunasekara is native to Southern Sri Lanka and comes from an unbroken line of Indigenous connection (over 3,000 years) to the use, cultivation, and spiritual function of the coconut. He is a co-founder of Niu Now where his love and knowledge of the niu activates and nourishes a cultural agroforestry movement dedicated to Heritage-Based Community Coconut Gene Banking of Hawaiian coconut diversity and to the growing of uluniu – coconut groves – throughout Hawaiʻi to keep Hawaiian coconut genetic diversity alive and appreciated. Indrajit safeguards endangered niu varieties to activate cultural practices of food security, along with niu arts and knowledge to help Hawaiʻi recognize this vital and ancient ecological resource.
Indrajit holds a B.S in Education from BYUH, along with a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution from UHM and Master of Science in Tropical Plants and Soil Science from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa focused on traditional Hawaiian coconut genetic diversity.
Jahnna-Marie Kehaulani Kahele-Madali
Community Coconut Program Assistant, Email
Kehau was born and raised in Nānākuli. As a proud 2016 graduate, she aspired to be the beacon of hope for her people. Coming from a non-traditional family, she understood the importance of breaking the cycle of abuse and rewriting the narrative. After studying for two years in Washington on a basketball scholarship at Highline, she earned her AA in Liberal Arts and then transferred back home to the University of Hawaiʻi at West Oʻahu. Not only did she receive her BA in Hawaiian Pacific Studies, but she also was able to share her story as the 2024 Annual Commencement student speaker.
As a former Mālama Learning Center and Kupu intern, her horticultural experience that started in a nursery now stretches over groves of niu. She previously worked as Papa Māla/ Mahiʻai to Kula Waena at Ka Waihona o ka Naʻauao and is now a niu practitioner with 4+ years of experience at Ka Uluniu West Oʻahu. She remains passionate about growing coconuts as a cultural practice and specializes in producing educational material for community outreach and incorporating niu into Hawaiʻi’s school curriculum. She has presented her research on niu at the UHWO, Key Project’s CRB Symposium, and the 2024 Festival of the Pacific. She is eager to continue her work with the Kaulunani Community Coconut Program.
Lennie Espinoza
Kupu Member, Email
Lennie Espinoza (he/they) is the newest Kupu ‘Āina Corps member supporting Kaulunani. Native to Turtle Island, Lennie has lived in Wahiawā, Oʻahu for seven years, graduating from Leilehua High School in 2019. After earning his Associate’s at Leeward Community College in 2021, Lennie finished their undergraduate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo where they studied English. Throughout his education career, Lennie wrote extensively on decolonization and Indigenous sovereignty and became involved in community organizing and advocacy.
As a Two Spirit individual, caring for his community is a kuleana Lennie carries with pride. He aims to do so through his work with Kaulunani, cultivating community connection through work with our community forests. He believes it is through ʻāina that we can heal and move forward together, and is eager to facilitate this connection through education and stewardship. Other ways Lennie connects to the community is through their poetry and art, which they use to express their connection to ʻāina, their ancestors, and their experience as a 2s chicano.
Takuma Itoh
2024 Kaulunani Artist in Residence
Takuma Itoh’s music has been described as “brashly youthful and fresh” (New York Times), and has been featured amongst one of “100 Composers Under 40” on WQXR. Recently, Itoh has been instrumental in creating two innovative education programs, Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds (2018) and the Symphony of the Hawai‘i Forests (2023), which has since brought over 12,000 young students to hear new orchestral compositions alongside original animations to raise awareness of Hawai‘i’s many endangered bird species and forests, respectively. Other recent highlights include a work for Invoke (string quartet with ‘ukulele doubling) American Postcards: Picture Brides (Hawaii 1908-1924) that used photographs collected by historian Barbara Kawakami to tell the story of the first Japanese women immigrants who came to Hawai‘i; Wavelengths for Hub New Music, Faded Aura for Hub New Music and shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki, which was performed around Japan on a tour with the Asia American New Music Institute, as well as; a collaboration with the American Wild Ensemble for their tour of Hawai‘i, including a performance at the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park; and Koholā Sings for harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.
Itoh has been the recipient of the Barlow Endowment general commission, Music Alive: New Partnerships grant with the Tucson Symphony, the Chamber Music America Classical Commission, the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, six ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and the Leo Kaplan Award.
Itoh has taught at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa since 2012 where he is Professor of Music. He holds degrees from Cornell University, University of Michigan, and Rice University
Nalu Andrade
2023 Kaulunani Artist in Residence
Nalu first had an interest in carving at the age of six when he saw the 1978 voyage of Hōkūleʻa. He borrowed carving and voyaging books from his school library and began to try to make his own waʻa with items found around his home. While still in high school, he was asked to help with the lashing on Hōkūleʻa at Pier 40 where he met many artists and carvers that were involved in the new Hawaiian renaissance.
After high school, Nalu began making bone koʻi and makau for craft fairs and for the Bishop Museum gift shop. In 2015, Nalu created Na Maka Kahiko. Blending the old with the new; he created his hand carved ʻohe kāpala earrings inspired by designs found at the Bishop Museum.
In collaboration with Kaulunani and ‘Ohu ‘Ohu Ko’olau Inc., Nalu will be leading a series of workshops including “Carving Out Our Future: Growing Stewards and Healthy Forests Through the Practice of Kālai” where families will learn to carve māna ‘ai (first food dishes for babies).
Above is footage & interviews from a recently funded project ‘Carving Out Our Future with Nalu Andrade’. These workshops strengthened participants relationships to our trees and forests by carving māna ‘ai (babies first food dish).
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