Ka Ipu Kukui fellows explore challenges of building resilience in Maui County

Sixteen fellows of the 2024 Ka Ipu Kukui cohort gathered recently to address building resilience for Maui County, a challenge that’s all the more daunting in the wake of the August wildfires.

Presented by Maui Economic Development Board, the annual Project Weekend was renamed Project Maui Nui to reflect its focus and purpose, as well as being responsive to the county’s current needs.

The three-day workshop was specifically designed for the fellows of Ka Ipu Kukui, a yearlong program designed for community-identified, emerging leaders and conceived to address planning for Maui Nui’s future.

The Pacific Disaster Center partnered with MEDB to provide the cohort with background information for the challenge project. Center Senior Advisor Tim Manning presented a keynote on resilient communities. Manning worked with Obama and Biden White House administrations.

Erin Hughey, director of Global Operations for the center, spoke on the center’s work in disaster management, including with the Maui wildfires. The center has tools and resources available to help with risk mitigation and the impacts of natural hazards on Hawaii. Joseph Green, the center’s director of Applied Science, followed up with a presentation on “What is Resilience and How do we Measure it?”

The Pacific Disaster Center then led the cohort through a table-top exercise to help the fellows start to think from a stakeholder’s point of view on how to respond to a disaster and plan for the future.

“We were very grateful to partner with Pacific Disaster Center who went above and beyond as the subject-matter experts for the workshop,” said Annette Lynch, MEDB’s director of communications. “The presentations and table-top exercise helped to kick off the actual challenge with teams working on their solutions to build resilience. The PDC team acted as coaches on Day 2 to answer questions and provide guidance on their projects.”

Teams presented their projects on the afternoon of Day 3 with a 10-minute pitch to a panel of three judges — Henry “Hanale” Lindo, assistant chief, Maui Fire Department; Saumalu Mata’afa, deputy director, Department of Housing and Human Concerns; and Steven M. Sigler, PhD, Disaster Services National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment specialist, Pacific Disaster Center.

Solutions included developing community hubs to facilitate response and communication; the use of drones for search-and-rescue and other emergency services; developing a food forest to enhance local sustainability; and deploying a digital bus concept to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to remote areas and during disasters.

“Addressing the challenge of building resiliency in such a short time frame was both challenging and rewarding,” said Brialyn Onadera, who works with the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. “Being able to come up with a feasible solution in two days gave a sense of achievement and allowed me to build deeper relationships with the members of the group. I also appreciated that this gave us a chance to have informed, engaging and insightful discussions about a critical issue affecting Maui and feasible solutions.”

Matthew Lugo of Privateer said: “My overall experience with Project Maui Nui was excellent! It was great working with a diverse team with a wide skill set trying to tackle how to improve disaster resiliency on Maui. We had great advice and guidance from the advisors and team at PDC, and it was astounding how many great ideas we created and heard from the other teams.”

Lugo’s team, Hui Hōkū Initiative, was this year’s winner for its drone service solution.

“I feel our team’s project solution truly can help Maui,” Lugo said. “It’s fairly simple — encourage more parties involved in disaster relief to use this available and cheap technology of drones in more innovative and frequent ways. Sometimes the best innovation is realizing that the capability is already out there and simply shifting protocol to use it.” 

The Ka Ipu Kukui Fellows meets monthly to further develop a holistic appreciation and understanding of Maui Nui’s unique challenges. As their May graduation approaches, recruitment for the 2025 Cohort will begin in late spring. To learn more, visit Ka Ipu Kukui Fellows.

Maui Economic Development Board is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1982. Its mission is to diversify Maui County’s economy, building pathways to innovation, jobs and opportunity for residents.