Our Team
Jennifer Navarra
Program Director
Jennifer has been working in the zero waste movement in Hawaiʻi for the last four years and is a founding member of Zero Waste Hawaiʻi Island. It was through her work doing outreach at events and community meetings that she understood the need for system level changes to address our society's waste problem. Since that time she has been advocating for reusable packaging systems and is engaged in efforts to pass producer responsibility legislation for packaging at the state level. Jennifer is a systems thinker who draws on her background in anthropology and ecology to imagine and create better systems to collect and reuse our resources and reduce waste.
K. Kuulei Kanahele
Outreach Coordinator and Cultural Advisor
Kuulei was born in Hilo, Hawaiʻi and raised in the ʻili ʻāina of Panaʻewa. She belongs to Malia Perreira, Fred and Gerrianne (Low) Perreira, and the Keawekane ʻohana of Kāneʻohe/Keaukaha. She comes from the Kanilehua rain, the ʻAʻala Honua wind, and the waters of Lokowaka, and she is sustained by Puʻu Kūkahauʻula of the Mauna a Wākea. In addition to her musicianship (@kuuleimusic on Instagram), she has served as a Cultural Advisor in the field of Native Hawaiian Health with the John A Burns School of Medicine, the Māpuna Lab - formerly with the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, and the Bridge House treatment facility in Keauhou, Mauka. Kuulei also serves as a board member of the Keaukaha Panaewa Farmer’s Association, and an honorary member of the Panaewa Neighborhood Watch group. She stands as an activist in protection of Mauna Kea, Kapūkakī, Kahuku, and other ʻāina relatives, and she is grateful to contribute her experience with aloha ʻāina and community engagement to the Zero Waste Hāwaiʻi Island Team.
Ellen Okuma
Research and Community Liaison &
NO POHŌ Project Director
Ellen retired from Hawaiʻi Community College (HawCC) in Hilo as a library faculty member. Her love of nature began as a child in Southern California. Born in Big Bear, she grew up at ranger stations where her father was a U.S. Forest Service Fire Control Officer. Those early years and a concentration in environmental management for a Master in Public Administration gave her insight when she helped develop the curriculum for HawCC's Associate of Science degree in Tropical Forest Ecosystem and Agroforestry Management. She has served on Boards of Directors for the Hilo YWCA, Kamehameha Canoe Club and Recycle Hawai'i. In 2022, Ellen applied for and received microgrants from The Zonta Club of Hilo and Vibrant Hawaiʻi and developed NO POHŌ, in partnership with The Locavore Store. NO POHŌ reduces costs & waste for Hilo's locally-owned drink producers by distributing refillable glass bottles for reuse.
TallChief Comet
Sustainability Advisor Emeritus
TallChief (“TC”) retired to the Keaau area in late 2020 after working over 3 decades in the environmental, natural resources, and sustainability fields in California and Alaska, with the last 14 years as the Director of Sustainability, Energy, and Grounds at Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt). TC brings a wide diversity of experience and knowledge to ZWHI, with specific experience on municipal waste and zero waste taskforces, creating a community recycling program (which won two national EPA awards), writing and negotiating solid waste contracts, and mentoring/advising dozens of university students in several student organizations/programs examining waste and sustainability challenges. During the almost 20 years TC has been spending time on the Big Island he has become familiar with many of the waste issues and hopes to be of service to ZWHI and the community in creating a Zero Waste future.
Paul Martin
Technical Assistance Specialist
Born on O’ahu and raised in Pahoa. Growing up in a close-knit rural community, spent much of his time participating in community activities and the natural environments of the island. Understanding community engagement and island life, Paul looks to bring a connection of island-based knowledge and relationships to the ZWHI reuse program. Starting off in a professional career at a young age and later going on to spend over 10 years in native plant conservation and habitat restoration and recently agriculture crop research here in Hilo. Working with field staff on project implementation and management as well as collaboration with various partners, providing him with various skills and work experiences. When not working with ZWHI, Paul can be found from Mauka to Makai, hiking, fishing and collecting plants. Paul also serves on the board of a local farmers co-op for small farmers.
Yuko Carey
Volunteer, Graphic Designer
Yuko grew up in Tokyo, Japan but has lived and worked in megacities from San Francisco to New York, Paris, and Berlin, and far-flung countries from Haiti to Liberia, Tunisia, and the Marshall Islands. Throughout her travels, Yuko contributed her skills and experience as a freelance graphic designer to community projects, from helping local, Marshallese artists showcase their work, to publishing the national sustainable development plan for the West African country of Liberia. Yuko continues to do design work for a range of federal, state, and county agencies, but as someone who practiced a zero-waste lifestyle for over a decade, she joined Zero Waste Hawai’i Island the moment she arrived in 2023. When not behind the computer, Yuko uses a traditional Japanese natural farming method to promote and enjoy ecological and sustainable small-scale agriculture.
Devin Brown
Intern
Devin is an undergraduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Hilo and is majoring in Geography and Environmental Science. Devin is interning with Zero Waste Hawaiʻi Island to complete his capstone project for the Bonner Program. The Bonner Program is part of a national network that provides students with paid opportunities to develop as leaders and have a positive impact on their communities. Devin is working on a project to bring a reusable takeout container program to the UH Hilo cafeteria.