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
Community Partnership Coordinator| ISA Certified Arborist, Email
Koki Atcheson (she/her) helps our Kaulunani program and partnerships grow. She first started at Kaulunani as a Kupu Member from the Conservation Leadership Development Program in early 2023. She is an ISA certified arborist and 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. In her spare time, Koki loves to sew and try new craft projects, especially with friends!
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| ISA Certified Arborist, 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.
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.
Sanjeev Sridharan
Kaulunani Evaluation Advisor
Sanjeev Sridharan is Professor of Health Policy Evaluation at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Previously he was the Country Lead, Learning Systems and Systems Evaluation at the India Country Office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to this position, Sanjeev was Director of the Evaluation Centre for Complex Health Interventions at St. Michaels Hospital and Associate Professor at the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He is a former Associate Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation and has been on boards of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation and Evaluation and Program Planning. Presently, he is an Evaluation Advisor to the United Nations Internal Oversight Services—as part of his role in the advisory committee, he advises on evaluation designs for evaluations conducted by United Nations organizations. The focus of his work is on operationalizing the concept of sustainable impacts in evaluations.
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