Speakers 2022

Brett Jones

Brett Jones, originally from Honolulu, Hawaii is a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Australia previously served as Director of USAID’s Office of South and Central Asia in the Asia Bureau, USAID’s Regional Coordinator for the Pacific, as an LGBTQI and Inclusive Development Advisor for USAID, and as Director of USAID/Nepal’s Disaster Risk Reduction Office. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Brett worked for the U.S. Department of State, The World Bank, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has lived and worked in Croatia, Kosovo, Moscow, Nepal, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia and Fiji. Brett graduated from London School of Economics with an MSc in International Relations and Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. Married to Michael Goldman, acting U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Brett and her husband are parents of one child. www.usaid.gov

Natalie Salvatierra

Natalie Salvatierra of Orange County, California is the18-year-old founder of the international mental health organization Solely Sunshine, and the author of the children’s mental health book, Do Not Worry, Little Donkey. Inspired to create her organization after learning that some people with an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder out of fear of getting Covid who had a hand-washing compulsion were washing their hands until they become bloody and raw, she started the website www.solelysunshine.com to spread sunshine and to provide opportunity for anyone around the world to write an encouraging letter that Natalie sends to mental health facilities. Natalie’s mental health advocacy has reached nearly 300,000 people and has been featured on numerous TV segments, podcasts, newspapers, and magazines. Outside of running Solely Sunshine Natalie studies Hula and Tahitian dancing. She also loves to cook. a Through her letter writing campaign, Solely Sunshine has impacted the lives of 25,000 and has received letters from 56 countries. @solely.sunshine on Instagram.

Emma Le Dû

Emma Le Dû of Seattle, Washington and Quetzaltenango, Guatemala is the Executive Director of the nonprofit TINFA (Technology and Information for All). She has previously held positions at the Grameen Foundation as Senior Technical Program Manager and has worked in the field of Information Technology for over fifteen years, at Microsoft and amazon.com in various positions in International and Program Management. Emma has spent two years in Lao P.D.R, as a computer consultant to the European Union and UNDP. She holds an Engineering degree in Robotics and Electronics (ESIGELEC in Rouen, France) and a Masters of Public Administration from the Kennedy School (Harvard University) with a focus on Leadership and International Development. www.tinfa.org

Tsedale Endrias

Tsedale Endrias, of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is a Senior Sponsorship Director and lead counselor working with children for the NGO Hope For Children, where she has served for over sixteen years. Tsedale has a background in clinical nursing and holds a diploma in Sociology and a BA degree. Tsedale has held many positions from Project Coordinator to nurse counselor for people who are living with HIV AIDS, to social worker, to Principal for group homes (where orphan children live as a family) to head for sponsorship for youth and children programs, girls empowerment project and youth learning centre. She has provided guidance for those who need special support or have medical issues or family and social issues. She facilitates holiday events for beneficiaries, provides training for children and their families and identifies new sponsors for children who are in need. She also is responsibly for conducting project performance monitoring for each family. During Tsedale’s professional career, she has served thousands of poor people and children in need. www.hopeforchildrenethiopia.org

Zalelem Mamuye

Zalelem Mamuye of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is the Executive Director of Hope For Children, an NGO that he joined in 2013. For the last fourteen years, Zalelem has worked in both the government and NGO sector— doing planning, monitoring and evaluation. Zalelem served as head of the HIV/AIDS Control Office in one of Ethiopia’s regional States where he prepared the local government's working plan, developed monitoring and evaluation checklists and undertook performance evaluation for program activities. He also followed up and decided on strategic matters related to HIV/AIDS issues. When he first worked at Hope For Children, he was a senior expert and project coordinator for a social accountability project where he focused on monitoring and evaluation. He became Executive Director in July 2017 where his role includes determining the strategy for the NGO, technical activities of proposal and report writing for stakeholders, public and media relations and financial and human resource functions, conducting project monitoring and evaluation activities and undertaking key partnerships and the development of local and international donors. Zalelem holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management and is a Master of Arts student concentrating in Developmental Management and Public Administration at Addis Ababa University.

Ken Wong

Ken Wong of New York is the Founder and Executive Director of the Face to Face Project whose mission includes mobilizing grassroots communities in Cambodia and Malawi to fight hunger and poverty through the creation of Victory gardens - a high yield, low cost approach to farming which helps families reduce the risk of relying on one crop by diversifying their gardens, learn strategies and techniques on how to grow enough food to eat, increase income by selling surplus food, improve nutrition, and lead healthy and fulfilling lives. With offices in New York, Malawi and Cambodia, Ken started Facet to Face in 2004. He previously worked as a documentary photographer and production manager of art books at Little, Brown & Company, Princeton University Press, and Yale University Press. Originally from Oberlin, Ohio, he is a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. www.facetoface.org

Dawn Degenhardt

Dawn Degenhardt of Houlton, Maine is the founder of multiple organizations that foster the rights of children. Dawn has place more than 4,000 children with adoptive familie and has been dedicated to bringing children and families together through adoption for more than thirty years. While living in Cleveland, Ohio, she co-founded the Ohio chapter of COAC (Council on Adoptable Children) and was a pioneer in changing the foster care/adoption system. Dawn also co-founded Spaulding of Beechbrook, which is still in existence today placing special needs children. After moving back to her home state of Maine, she founded an internationally recognized adoption agency. Dawn’s concern for children still in orphanages around the world prompted the development of many humanitarian aid projects. Wanting to devote her energy to this issue after retirement, Dawn, with family and friends, created The Degenhardt Foundation, now known as Aid for Kids. Dawn is a 2002 recipient of the National Caring Award from the Caring Institute, a nonprofit which promotes and honors acts of caring and humanitarian service around the country and internationally, dedicated to the principles of caring, integrity, and public service. Dawn and her late husband Ed are the parents of nine adopted children, now grown with their own families. www.aidforkids.org

Joy My Lien Degenhardt

Joy My Lien Degenhardt, of Vietnam and Houlton, Maine is the Vietnam Director for the nonprofit Aid for Kids. Joy came to the United States in 1972 as an adopted child of Ed and Dawn Degenhardt. She grew up in Maine and graduated from the University of Hawaii. In 1992, she returned to Vietnam with her mother to visit “her” orphanage. Overwhelmed with the desire to help other Vietnamese children in need, she directed the creation of an adoption and humanitarian aid program including a toy library and computer and learning center. Joy has successfully initiated and overseen many humanitarian projects for orphans, people with medical illnesses, disabilities and victims of natural disasters. Joy now lives in Vietnam, is fluent in Vietnamese and is the mother of three girls (one adopted).

Lisa maruyama

Lisa Maruyama, of Honolulu, Hawaii has served as the President and CEO of the Hawai`i Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations (HANO Hawaii) for thirteen years. She previously served as the Vice President of Public Affairs for Bright Light Marketing, and before that as Executive Directors for the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council and the Mental Health Association. She is a founding advisory member of the Funder Hui and is part of the Steering Committee of Chaminade University’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program. Ms. Maruyama specializes in strategic thinking for systems change, nonprofit management, strategic communications and marketing, program development, sector level public policy issues and government relations.

She currently is on the board of the O`ahu Economic Development Board, the Advisory Committee of the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa Public Administration Program; the Hawai`i Energy Strategic Advisory Board; and the Leadership Board of Transform Hawai`i Government (THG).

Ms. Maruyama received her BBA from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Shidler School of Business. She is a Pacific Century Fellow, Weinberg Fellow, PONO Fellow and was designated Top Forty Under 40 by the Pacific Business News in 2001.

www.hano-hawaii.org

David Sun Miyashiro

David Sun-Miyashiro, of Kailua, Hawaii is the Founder and Executive Director of HawaiiKidsCAN, a nonprofit based in Honolulu that partners with families and community members to promote education innovation and equity in Hawaii. HawaiiKidsCan works to promote passing legislation to computer science and career readiness program. Highlights have included passing legislation to increase access to computer science education and career readiness programs, creating the We Are Voices of Excellence youth advocacy program, and launching innovations such as Wifi on Wheels, Lanai Ohana Pods, Spark & Inspire, Wahine Processing Power, and the Hawaii Education Innovation Showcase. David is a proud fourth-generation Hawaii resident. He is experienced in the education, nonprofit, government, and political sectors, including as a local public school special education teacher through Teach For America-Hawaii. He served as press secretary for U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono, communications director for the Ann Callis for Congress campaign, and manager of external affairs and Executive Director support with Teach For America-Hawaii. Board service has included Treasurer of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, Common Cause Hawaii, Vice Chair of the Hawaii ACT Council, James Campbell High School’s Academy of Public and Human Services, Hawaii Workforce Development Council’s Youth Service Committee, The Computer Science Teachers Association Hawaii Chapter leadership team, and the Friends of Hawaii Technology Academy, as well as numerous Hawaii State Department of Education stakeholder groups. David is an alumnus of the Weinberg Fellows program and PIE Network Leadership Institute. He has been recognized as one of the 2022 “20 for the Next 20” by Hawaii Business Magazine, the 2018 and 2021 CAN-Do Awards from the 50CAN Network, and a finalist for the 2021 Champions for Children Award from the Hawaii Children’s Action Network. David holds a bachelors degree from Brandeis University and masters degrees from the University of Hawaii and Harvard Graduate School of Education. www.hawaiikidscan.org

Kathleen Introna

Kathleen Introna, from Australia has been a registered nurse since 1985, and holds a Master’s degree in Palliative Care and is also trained as a midwife. Kate first volunteered at Sarnelli House in 2002 for eighteen months. Sarnelli House is a home for children who are abandoned, abused or living with HIV in Northeast Thailand. During that time, 25 children who were born with HIV were started on their lifelong Anti Retroviral Therapy. This prevented their HIV infection from progressing to AIDS. In 2005 -2007 Kate worked for the Australian Red Cross as part of the development team in Banda Aceh, Indonesia after the devastating tsunami of 2004. At the end of 2007 Kate returned to Sarnelli House in Nongkhai and has been living and working there ever since. She works as the health advisor and volunteer coordinator. Nine years ago Kate met her husband who came from Ireland to volunteer at Sarnelli House, and they were married in 2015 where they both now live and work. https://sarnellihouse.org/

Elie Lafortune

Elie Lafortune, of Haiti is an Executive with over twenty years of evaluating, measuring, monitoring and tracking of performance, outputs, outcomes and impact, disaster management, sustainable agriculture management and training, and small business and general management consulting and development experience. Mr. Lafortune has managed teams of specialists in humanitarian and development programs (agriculture, education, health, micro-finance, organizational capacity development, and disaster response) to meet complex needs of individuals, businesses, NGOs, and Government Agencies and has country Expertise in Haiti, Central African Republic, Republic Democratic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, and South Africa.Mr. Lafortune holds a BS from the State University of Haiti’s School of Agriculture, an MBA from the Simon Business School of the University of Rochester, and an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is on the Board of Directors of Esperanza (a microfinance institution based in the Dominican Republic) and a community school in Haiti. Elie is the Harvard Alumni Contact in Haiti. Elie resides in Pétion-Ville Haiti with his wife Katarina and two children, Samuel and Esther. They can often be found enjoying Haiti’s magnificent beaches and the sun or far off in Europe enjoying the snow.

Tristan Burnett*

Tristan Burnett originally from the island of Kauai, works for the UN Migration Agency, or the International Organization for Migration (IOM). She is the Deputy Director of the Department of Operations and Emergencies, which coordinates IOM’s humanitarian response to conflict and natural disasters, transitional programming, as well as its movement and resettlement operations. Previous to her appointment, Tristan was the head of the Preparedness and Response Division. She has managed programs on anti-trafficking; research; and coordinated a global project to establish interagency complaint mechanisms for victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. Tristan has been posted in Washington, DC; Afghanistan; Indonesia; and Switzerland. https://www.iom.int/

Josiah Akau*

Josiah Akau of Kailua, Hawaii is a lifelong City and County of Honolulu firefighter and owner of Diversified Contract Services (DCS) founded Kinai `Eha translated from Hawaiian means “to extinguish pain.” Kinai `Eha is a small non profit that aims to disrupt the pathway to prison for Native Hawaiian youth who are seeking purpose and direction in their lives. Through a partnership between Josiah’s for profit and nonprofit, Native Hawaiian youth are provided with vocational skills in construction and receive a values based, trauma informed education grounded in Hawaiian culture. Josiah works tirelessly and selflessly to lead, teach, and mentor the students of Kinai `Eha all while successfully running his contracting business, being a first responder at the Waimanalo Fire Station and a dad of two teenage boys. Josiah is committed to addressing the toughest issues facing our most vulnerable youth such as high school drop-outs, houselessness, substance abuse, learning differences, incarceration, and a multitude of other intractable issues. Josiah and his team have been recognized by both the City of Honolulu and State of Hawaii for their work empowering youth. https://kinaieha.org/

Nancy Santullo*

Nancy Santullo originally from New Hampshire, enjoyed a successful career as a freelance fashion and advertising photographer in Los Angeles for over fifteen years, but began to feel that something was missing. She had an internal longing for more, and was compelled to step out of her comfortable world in search of deeper meaning in her life. In 1999, Nancy made a trip to the Peruvian Rainforest. There, she found a connection to the people of an indigenous village – to their beauty – their hearts, and their vision of what the future looked like for their children and community. Nancy saw that access to clean water, and sanitation that did not contaminate their surroundings, could fundamentally alter their vision. It could be a future they would define from a place of strength, holding fast to their environment, traditions, and culture. She also saw a need that resonated in her, something she wanted to direct her energy and talent toward, something she wanted to change for the better. On this trip Nancy decided she would make this her life’s work, her calling. https://rainforestflow.org/

ASMA Qadri *

Asma Qadri of Pakistan is a lawyer by profession and serves as Communications Manager at Circle Women in Pakistan and works to empower the women of Pakistan through digital access and inclusion. Founded by Ms. Sadaffe Abid, CIRCLE Women is a social enterprise working on women’s empowerment and leadership development, as well as digital equity, through advocacy, research, technology and innovative entrepreneurship labs. CIRCLE has been inspiring women & girls to believe in themselves, building capacity through digital skills, mentorship, work readiness and increasing women’s participation in the economy. CIRCLE believes in supporting the next generation workforce, empowering women and engaging with the youth. CIRCLE works towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals, esp SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth). https://www.circlewomen.co/dlp/

* Returning Speaker