Mālama ‘Āina Foundation Staff

Mr. Jan E. H. Dill, President & Chairman of the Board for Partners In Development, President of Mālama ‘Āina Foundation and Project Director for the E Ola Pono project

Since 1997, Mr. Jan Edward Hanohano Dill has been President, Partner, Chairman, and Project Director for a number of Hawaii-based development groups, including Partners In Development, Strategic Solutions, Inc., Strategies Hawaii, and the Consortium for Hawaii Ecological Engineering Education (CHEEE). He has devoted himself to developing innovative environmental remediation programs, consulting on governmental and management issues, and working in education and community development for public and private clients. His recent development of the Mālama ‘Āina Foundation brought forth additional programs aimed at developing project-based educational curricula for Native Hawaiian Public Charter Schools. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Philosophy at Beloit College, Wisconsin, and his Masters of Arts degree in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Massachusetts. Mr. Dill has been involved in various teaching and directing capacities at several major educational facilities, including Punahou School in Honolulu Hawai‘i, San Carlos National University in Guatemala City, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and the Nutrition Institute, also at Tufts University. Mr. Dill also served as Vice President and Co-Chief Executive Officer at the Oceanic Institute in Waimanalo, Hawaii, where he was responsible for fundraising over $110 million for the improvements and growth of the facility. Other titles Mr. Dill has held include the Vice-President position for development at the Pacific American Foundation (funded by grants from the Administration for Native Americans), Chairman of the Governor's/Mayor's Annual Hawaii Prayer Breakfast, Chairman of the Child Evangelism Fellowship of Hawaii Board, President of Na Pua a Ke Ali‘i Pauahi, and a member of the steering committee for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Hokule‘a Voyage.

Dr. Michael Kahue, Associate Project Director

In 2004, Dr. Kahue worked full-time as a Doctor of Chiropractic through his downtown office in Honolulu. He knew very little about his culture, his homeland, and his people, the native Hawaiians. Born and raised in central O‘ahu, he experienced only a limited amount of exposure to the Hawaiian way of life, mainly because his father, who was 50% Hawaiian, grew up with little exposure as well. He always wanted to immerse himself in his Hawaiian roots, but never took the initiative to do so. Ke Akua changed all that when Dr. Kahue was approached by two of the board members for P.I.D., to take the directorship position for the E Ola Pono project. He now enjoys the interaction with many who are strong in the culture, and is spending an enormous amount of time learning the Hawaiian language from kumu Alison Ledward. Dr. Kahue recently returned from Aotearoa with a renewed vision to see the Hawaiian culture revitalized and maintained for generations to come. Dr. Kahue obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa and his Doctorate degree in Chiropractic from Life Chiropractice College West in San Lorenzo, California. His professional career includes working as a graphic designer with Weyerhaeuser Paper Company in Honolulu for 9 years (1981 - 1989), and maintaining a private practice (also in Honolulu) for the past 13 years (1993 - 2005). In addition to his director's position with the Mālama ‘Āina Foundation, Dr. Kahue also currently works as the Youth Director/Pastor and Worship Leader for Nu‘uanu Baptist Church, and helps coordinate youth missions trips (two internationally) annually with his youth group.

Buddy Vidal, Administrative/Project Assistant

Buddy Vidal graduated from Wai‘anae High School in 1984, received his A.A. from Leeward Community College in 1992, and in 1995, attained a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Hawaii at West O‘ahu. From 1997 to 2004, he has worked at various financial institutions, being employed at Central Pacific Bank as a Financial Services Officer, the Bank of Hawaii as a Residential Loan Officer, and the Hawaii State Federal Credit Union as a Financial Services Specialist.

Giving his life to Christ and becoming a Christian in March 2004 caused Buddy to re-evaluate his life, and he decided to serve the community through the educational sector. The Mālama ‘Āina Foundation provided him with that very opportunity, to help teach Native Hawaiian youth and the children of Hawai‘i how to survive and thrive in an ever changing and competitive environment.

Billy Richards (William K. Richards Jr.), Cultural Coordinator

Mr. Richards is contracted as a Cultural Consultant to the Consortium for Hawai‘i Ecological Engineering Education (CHEEE) dba Malama ‘Aina Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing interested parties together to carry out research and education programs that focus on the preservation and protection of Hawai‘i√≠s natural environment. He was specifically assigned to the educational program "E Ola Pono O Ka ‘Aina A Me Ke Kai", working with a team to develop project-based curriculum utilizing Kaneohe Bay as the source classroom. Mr. Richards has held management positions in both the public and private sector, primarily in the field of aquaculture. He spent close to two decades at The Oceanic Institute, a non-profit research organization where some of his cumulative responsibilities included: serving as assistant to the Institute√≠s Vice-President of Program Development in the development of new programs domestic and international; Research Associate of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded marine shrimp research program; Manager of the Hawaiian Fishpond Revitalization Project (HFR) which sought to revitalize ancient Hawaiian fishponds for economic purposes while maintaining their cultural integrity, and; Manager of The Oceanic Institute - Ke‘ahuolu, a facility located near Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawai‘i that serves as a site for the Institute√≠s aquaculture education and training programs and, which houses the USDA Marine Shrimp Consortium's Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) shrimp stocks. More recently in the private sector, he was Vice-President and General Manager of Hawai‘i High Health Seafood Corporation, the sales and marketing subsidiary of a large land-based aquaculture operation located on Kaua‘i. He has been involved with Hawai‘i√≠s voyaging community since 1975 and has served aboard the voyaging canoes Hokule‘a, Hawai‘iloa, Makali‘i and Hokualaka‘i. He presently sits as President of "The Friends of Hokule‘a and Hawai‘iloa", a non-profit organization whose mission is to "perpetuate ancient Hawaiian canoe resources by building, restoring and sharing traditional canoe building skills".

Calvin Hoe, Cultural Consultant

Calvin Hoe is one of the founding members of the Hakipu‘u Learning Center Charter School and is also on their Administrative Team. He is a 1967 graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, having received his B.A. in Psychology. Over the past three decades, Calvin has been involved in the renaissance of Hawaiian music, hula, and the arts, and has also been a presenter at numerous festivals and several schools such as the University of Hawai‘i. He was also Community Development Facilitator at the Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center from 1999-2003, and has also established an art gallery to promote the Hawaiian arts and artists at the Waiahole Poi Factory.

Gary A. Glenn, Project Evaluator

Gary Glenn has focused his career on international education and on development of programs for Native Hawaiians. He was a founder of ACCION International, now the largest non-governmental community assistance and educational organization working throughout Latin America and in selected U.S. cities. He also served as Founding Director of the Latin American Teaching Fellowships program, and was President of the Massachusetts Centers of Excellence Corporation, in which capacity he arranged funding for educational projects in science and technology for institutions of higher education. For the past ten years Mr. Glenn has served as Vice President of the Partners in Development Foundation in Hawaii, and as President of the Consortium for Hawaii Ecological Engineering Education; both organizations have conceptualized and arranged funding for major educational projects ranging from pre-school through K-12, and for graduate programs benefiting Native Hawaiian communities.

Dr. Katherine A Tibbetts, Assessment/Evaluation Consultant

Katherine Tibbetts has over 20 years experience in the design and implementation of educational evaluation and research projects with programs serving Native Hawaiian students and communities, many enrolling educationally at-risk children and youth. Although not Native Hawaiian by birth, Kathy has deep respect and aloha for the Hawaiian culture and the people of Hawai‘i. She has a long-standing commitment to high quality, culturally-appropriate evaluation practice. In addition to her work with the Malama ‘Aina Foundation, Kathy's experience encompasses evaluation of a wide range of programs and services which include home visiting programs for expectant parents and families of infants and toddlers, play-and-learn groups, preschools, literacy programs, traditional K-12 campus-based programs and charter schools, post-secondary education, and admissions and financial aid policies. In the context of K-12 programs, she developed some of the earliest criterion-referenced performance-based assessments for evaluation of the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) and has designed and conducted evaluations of innovative science and one-on-one computing programs. She has developed and delivered training sessions to build evaluation capacity among program delivery staff and has developed online courses in educational research and evaluation. Dr. Tibbetts holds an A.B. in Psychology from Colby College and an MSW and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, both from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is an active member of the American Educational Research Association and the American Evaluation Association and their Hawai‘i affiliates. She is one of the co-founders of the Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation topical interest group of the American Evaluation Association and currently serves as co-chair of this group.

Professional Development Leaders

Judith Dill, Math Specialist

During the past three decades as a mathematics and statistics educator, Judy has been deeply committed to her students and her colleagues. Her career experiences include teaching at both the high school and college level on the mainland, and locally at The Kamehameha Schools, Windward Community College, Hawaii Baptist Academy, Mid Pacific Institute, and Kapiolani Community College. She has earned a reputation as an effective communicator, building successful professional teams in multicultural settings. From 1998 to 2001 Judy worked for The American Statistical Association in Washington, D.C. as Project Leader for Education. Her responsibilities included overseeing the association's Center for Statistics Education and working with various committees to promote statistics education throughout the country. Mrs. Dill received her B.A. in Mathematics from Wittenberg University in Ohio and earned a Master of Arts Degree in the Teaching of Mathematics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Judy is currently a Faculty Consultant for The College Board's Advanced Placement Statistics Program.

Chad Durkin, Science Specialist

Chad received his B.S. from Olympia, Washingtons' Evergreen State College in 2000, and in the last five years, has gained valuable field experience working with several different organizations. Soon after graduationg from college, Chad was employed as a Water Quality Specialist with the environmental consulting firm, Aecos, and from January 2001 to late 2003, he worked for Ocean Arks International (OAI) as an Applied Ecologist. While at OAI, Chad helped construct and build a lake restorer at Hualalai, Hawai‘i, and also monitored and conducted water chemistry analysis for OAI. Currently, Mr. Durkin is Project Manager for Natural Systems, Inc., an organization which has received much publicity lately for trying to clean up the Ala Wai Canal through a natural wastewater treatment process called phytoremediation.

David "Kawika" K. Kahiapo, Team Leader / Field Coordinator

Musician, artist, carpenter, pastor. These are just some of the career titles David has carried throughout his live, and continues to hold today. A deeply religious man who also has a firm understanding of his Native Hawaiian heritage, Mr. Kahiapo brings cultural difinition to Mālama ‘Āina Foundation's project. Currently, David is a musician with the band, Kaukahi, is a Senior Pastor with Ka Ohana o Ke Aloha, and is also on The Friends of He‘eia's Board of Directors. His various experiences within the Hawaiian culture is found in the many musical recordings he has completed, and also through the motto for our program, which he helped to create, "E Ola Pono Meka ‘āina a me ke kai," or "Live Right with the Land and the Sea."