Board Members

Keani Rawlins-Fernandez serves on the County Council seat for the Molokaʻi residency area. She is also is the Chair of the Efficiency Solutions and Circular Systems. She earned her J.D. at the William S. Richardson School of Law and her M.B.A. from Shidler College of Business.

Lise Vaughan-Sekona is the Program Development Manager at EPIC `Ohana, Inc., a Hawai‘i 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. EPIC `Ohana has been serving families and children in the child welfare system since 1998. In her role, Ms. Vaughan-Sekona brings community serving programming to fruition. Her work in service is formed by her kūlana and kuleana to her community. 

She is a proud graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has her Master's in Business Administration from the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Ms. Vaughan-Sekona has her LL.M in Indigenous Peoples Law from the College of Law at the University of Oklahoma.

Makanalani Malia Gomes is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Filipina storyteller, land and water defender, and emerging healer. Makanalani was born on Oʻahu and raised between the moku of ʻEwa, Oʻahu, and Puna, Hawaiʻi i; sheholds this ʻāina (lifeways), as well as her ʻohana, family, and community, as her first teachers and sources of wisdom. Makanalani is connected to local and global decolonization and demilitarization movements to protect human and Indigenous rights and the health of Earth Mother. In April of 2024, she completed her 2-year term as one of three Co-Chairs of the United Nations Global Indigenous Youth Caucus (GIYC), where she spoke on a panel at the United Nations headquarters in Lenapehoking (NYC) at the 23rd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples Issues (UNPFII) on the importance of the role of Indigenous Youth in self-determination. Makanalani has served the caucus for over 5 years. Three as Pacific focal point and two as co-chair. She is also a Master’s candidate at Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a student of Hawaiian healing traditions and hula. She is a part of a team of Kānaka Maoli women working on the second report of the Murdered Missing Native Hawaiian Women Girls and Māhū (third gender peoples) Task Force, a groundbreaking initiative to understand and make visible the experiences of violence facing these communities. She is also a community organizer and core member of Af3irm-Hawaiʻi, a transnational feminist organization where Native, Black, and Immigrant women unite to fight against imperialism and colonization. The greatest work she has ever been called to remains the protection of Mauna Kea, where she spent six months on the frontlines protecting sacred ancestral lands and waters and opposing the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in 2019. When she isn’t in community or organizing, you can find her spending time with her ‘ohana (family), friends, and her dogs. In her rare downtime, she enjoys any time at the beach, planting and playing in her backyard, cooking and baking, thrifting or curating her closet, or going for a cruise around the island."

Yvonne “Von” Mahelona is a traditional Kanaka ‘Oiwi (Native Hawaiian) birthworker, grief worker, land & water protector and an anti-imperialist feminist community organizer with AF3IRM Hawai‘i. She is also a student of ‘oli, traditional Hawaiian ceremony and chanting, with Hale Haumea under Kumu Hāwane Rios. Originally from Nānākuli Hawaiian Homestead on the island of O‘ahu, she was raised by her great-grandmother to be the caregiver she is today. Some of her previous work includes MMNHWGM (Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women, Girls and Mahu) policy research and frontline organizing on the sacred mountain, Mauna Kea, where she spent 6 months in 2019 with her people and allies to block construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope. If she had to sum up her work, she’d say she is a defender of all that is sacred: land, women and māhū included. She currently spends her time holding free community grief circles, offering doula support for folks who experience abortion and miscarriage, and educating her community about reproductive justice, all grounded in anti-capitalism and ‘ike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge).

Her work is an answer to the call of her kūpuna (ancestors/foremothers) and Haumea, the goddess of childbirth and politics, to offer care for those who are seeking a sense of sovereignty in their grieving, birthing and especially those who seek abortion and miscarriage support.