Chana Makaleʻa Dudoit Ane Named Island Innovation Ambassador

Chana Makaleʻa Dudoit Ane was named as an Island Innovation Ambassador by Island Innovation, an international social enterprise organization.

Island Innovation Ambassadors are a network of islanders from across the globe, now including the County of Maui. The members empower islands by communicating and developing creative solutions to shared challenges.

Ane is the Resilience Officer in the County of Maui’s newly formed Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience. She said, “Island Innovation seeks to connect diverse stakeholders from island communities, regardless of size, political status, or location. Islands often face similar challenges to one another but are forced to tackle them separately due to barriers created by distance, language and culture.”

“It is an honor that Chana was selected as an Island Innovation Ambassador to represent Maui County,” said Mayor Michael Victorino. “Islands have unique issues that are quite different from continents, so we are eager to hear what Chana learns, but also what she can teach. Programs like this open up new possibilities for all island communities throughout the world.”

The Island Innovation Ambassador program allows for collaboration and idea sharing from the ambassadors’ unique perspective. Makaleʻa “endeavors to incorporate her interest in traditional ecological knowledge to facilitate the cooperation of government agencies with native people and promote nature-based and indigenous solutions to climate change.”

Island communities represented in the program span Maui to Oland (Sweden) to Fiji, Jamaica and Tierra del Fuego (Chile).

The ambassadors will collaborate toward creating a successful Virtual Island Summit from Sept. 6-12, 2021. More than 10,000 are expected to participate as representatives of private sector companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, and utilities.