OHA selects new community engagement director

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has named Lise Vaughan-Sekona, Esq., as OHA’s community engagement director, filling another key position on its leadership team. Vaughan-Sekona reports to OHA Chief Operating Officer Kēhaulani Puʻu.

“We are so pleased to have Lise join OHA’s team,” Puʻu said. “Her diverse background, experiences and her heart for community bring great value to this role and all that OHA community engagement encompasses. We look forward to strengthening our work with our beneficiaries under her leadership.”

As community engagement director, Vaughan-Sekona will oversee the development and implementation of community outreach initiatives for OHA to help inform, involve and engage the Native Hawaiian community, working closely with OHA’s advocacy, communications and land divisions. Vaughan-Sekona oversees a team of OHA beneficiary services agents located on five islands with kuleana to help identify high-priority needs, interests and initiatives within their respective communities and find ways for OHA to engage with and support them.

Prior to joining OHA’s leadership team, Vaughan-Sekona was the program development and grant manager at EPIC (Effective Planning & Innovative Communication) ‘Ohana, a Hawaiʻi nonprofit corporation devoted to family conferencing, facilitation, training and program development. She has also served as vice president of community services at the Domestic Violence Action Center, and for 12 years was a private practice attorney focusing in the areas of contracts, mediation, Indigenous Peoples, Native Hawaiian rights, landlord/tenant, real property and administrative law.

“I am humbled to serve our lāhui as the director of community engagement,” Vaughan-Sekona said. “I look forward to collaborating with the people and organizations that are doing the good work to improve the well-being of all Native Hawaiians. E ola mau!”

Vaughan-Sekona lives in Honolulu and is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools Kapālama. She has bachelor’s degrees in political science and economics from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree in business administration from UH Mānoa’s Shidler School of Business, a juris doctorate from UH Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law and a Master of Laws degree in Indigenous Peoples law from the University of Oklahoma John B. Turner School of Law.