Team

Our Team

Meet our Board Members and Staff

We’re a dynamic group of individuals who are passionate about promoting peace and social justice in Hawai’i.

  • Kyle Kajihiro

    Board Chair

    Kyle Kajihiro is a founding member of HPJ and is actively engaged in efforts to demilitarize the Pacific for more than 30 years. As a lecturer at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa he teaches classes in Ethnic Studies and Geography and Environment. His activism and research focus on U.S. imperial formations, militarization, and decolonization/demilitarization social movements in Hawai'i and the Pacific Region. Kyle also leads the Hawai'i DeTours Project­ historical-geographical tours of various sites on O'ahu which aim to foster solidarities and mutual responsibilities based on ea (life, breath, sovereignty, rising) and aloha 'aina (love, care, and political commitment to the land).

  • Ann Wright

    Secretary

    Ann Wright is a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Wright was also a passenger on the Challenger 1, which along with the Mavi Marmara, was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Ann has also opposed the expansion of NATO in Spain, fought to end the blockade in Cuba. and is actively involved in the Shutdown Red Hill Campaign and Cancel RIMPAC.

  • Sam Ikehara

    Treasurer

    Sam Ikehara was born and raised across Honolulu, in Kalihi, Nuʻuanu, Pauoa, and Mānoa. Her research and activism emerge from her family's histories and experiences across multiple wars and empires in the Pacific Ocean, particularly U.S. military occupation of Hawaiʻi and Okinawa. Through her work with both the Hawaiʻi Okinawa Alliance and Women's Voices, Women Speak, Sam strives to build and uplift international networks of solidarity against militarism across Asia and the Pacific Islands through her research and activism. She earned her BA and MA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and her PhD from the University of Southern California. She is currently a UC President's and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

  • Tina Grandinetti

    Board Member

    Tina Grandinetti is an Uchinanchu scholar-activist born and raised on Kanaka Maoli lands. Her research aims to advance housing justice in occupied Hawai'i. She is committed to a demilitarized future for the Pacific and was among the first to organize for the #Shutdown Red Hill movement. Tina earned her MA in Indigenous Politics from the University of Hawaii Mānoa and her PhD from RMIT University School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. She currently serves as Chief of Staff for Rep. Amy Perruso in the Hawai'i House of Representatives.

  • Natalie DeBiasi

    Board Member

    Natalie DeBiasi is Kanaka Maoli from Kaneohe, Oʻahu. She cares deeply about advancing social justice and battling systems of oppression in Hawaiʻi. She recently completed the Giving Project with Hawaiʻi Peoples Fund and also became the newest member of their board, to support and amplify the work of Hawaiʻi based grassroots organizations. This experience ignited a passion to stay connected to community organizing and fundraising

  • Hanaloa Helelā

    Board Member

    Hanaloa Helelā is a native Hawaiian activist and organizer who first became involved in activism during the first US War in Iraq during the early nineties. As an Air Force veteran, Hanaloa became involved in demilitarization effforts thoughout Hawai’i, working for the protection and return of US occupied lands. After learning about the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States, Hanaloa became involved in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement, joining several organizations working throughout Ka Pae ʻĀina o Hawaiʻi, to protect Kānaka Maoli rights, culture, land, water and iwi kūpuna. Currently, he is a member of the Kānaka Maoli organization Kaʻohewai, who built a shrine at the gate of the Indo-Pacific Command following the Red Hill spill in November 2021. He is also a member of Oʻahu Water Protectors, ShutDown Red Hill Mutual Aid coalition and the Wai Ola Alliance (WOA), as a plaintiff in a citizenʻs suit against the US Navy for violations of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

  • 'Alihilani Katoa

    Youth Organizer

    'Alihilani uses the pronouns she/her. Born and raised in Palolo Valley, O'ahu. She is a Hawaiian Nationalist, an Aloha 'Aina and a mother. She became an active kia'i on Mauna Kea, following the arrests of the k0puna in 2019. This awakened her desire to organize Native Hawaiians and the community. She believes giving youth the tools, teachings and support to make their own decisions is imperative to the hulihia (overturn) the current system. ʻAlihi will be leading our Youth Organizing committee and creating Aloha 'Aina clubs in local high schools to develop young organizers.

  • Tia Marie Masaniai

    Youth Organizer

    Tia is from Mānoa, in the Waikiki ahupuaʻa of Oʻahu. Her rain is tuahine. Her stream is ʻAuwaiolimu. Seattle is the home of my first political awakening in 2014, where my foundation of observation and analysis was built during my time at Seattle Central College. Mauna a Wakea during the 2019 stand off is where this grew into Community Organizing with Af3rm Hawaiʻi, an anti-imperialist organization in support of the demilitarization of Oceania. Remaining an active community member and advocate of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, the lāhui, and Aloha ʻĀina in the time since leaving both Af3rm and the Mauna. Always looking to deepen connections, solidarity and liberation.

  • Joy Enomoto

    Executive Director

    Joy comes to HPJ with more than twenty years of experience as a popular educator and as a community organizer. Born in California, she returned to her fatherʻs āina hānau of Makawao, Maui in 2002 and moved to Oʻahu in 2010 and she currently lives on the slopes of Puʻowaina in Makiki. Joy is the vice president of Hui Aloha 'Aina o Honolulu, is a member of the Youngsolwara Pacific Secretariat and the Black Pacific Alliance. Joy oversees HPJ's campaigns and programs and is committed to developing strategies that increase our capacity to build the power to create generative economies.