Charter School Commissioner Harman

ʻO Pelehonuamea Nāpuaʻalaonuʻuanu Gin Suganuma Harman ke keiki ʻelua a Laʻakea lāua ʻo Leimomi Suganuma. No Oʻahu o Kākuhihewa mai ʻo ia. Noho ʻo ia me kāna kāne ʻo Kekoa Lloyd Harman a me kā lāua mau kamalei ʻo Kalāmanamana (Nāwahī, papa puka 2019), Kaumualiʻi (Nāwahī, papa puka 2023), Nāliʻipōʻaimoku (Nāwahī, papa puka 2024) a me Hiʻiakaikawenaʻulaokalani (Nāwahī Iki) ma ka ʻāina i kaulana i ka Ulumano a me ka Moanianilehua. Me ke ohohia a me ka haʻahaʻa ʻo ia e hāpai aʻe nei i ka ʻōlelo ola o ka ʻāina ma kēia ʻAha Komikina hanohano o Hawaiʻi nei. E ola ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi!

Pelehonuamea Nāpuaʻalaonuʻuanu Gin Suganuma Harman is a lifelong educator, cultural practitioner, and advocate for Native Hawaiian education and community well-being. She is the great-granddaughter of Mary Kawena Pukui, the renowned Hawaiian scholar and native of Kaʻū. Born and raised on Oʻahu, she relocated to Hawaiʻi Island in 1999 to return to the ʻāina o kona mau kūpuna. She currently resides in Puna with her husband, Kekoa Harman, and together they raised their four children—Kalāmanamana, Kaumualiʻi, Nāliʻipōʻaimoku, and Hiʻiakaikawenaʻulaokalani—in Hawaiian, the primary language of their household.

Pelehonuamea is a 1997 graduate of Kamehameha Schools and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Hawaiian Language, an Indigenous Teaching Certificate, and a Master’s degree in Hawaiian Language and Literature from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Ka Haka ʻUla ʻo Keʻelikōlani. She has been engaged in Hawaiian language revitalization for over 20 years, including more than two decades as a teacher at Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu Hawaiian Medium School in Keaʻau, Puna, teaching at the elementary, intermediate, and high school levels. She has mentored and instructed several graduate students through the Kahuawaiola Indigenous Teacher Training Program at her alma mater.

A lifelong hula practitioner, she is a hula ʻuniki graduate of Kumu Hula Kimo Alama Keaulana and, with her husband, is the kumu and co-founder of Hālau I Ka Leo Ola O Nā Mamo, where they teach hula through the medium of the Hawaiian language to students of all ages. She is also the co-founder of No Nā ʻŌpio, a Hawaiʻi-based nonprofit dedicated to the development of youth.

Pelehonuamea currently serves as the Director of Native Hawaiian Engagement at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and is a board member of the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, Nā Hoa o Puna Soccer Club, and the Waikapuna Stewardship Committee. Guided by the ʻōlelo noʻeau: E kanu meaʻai o nānā keiki i kā haʻi. (Plant edible foods....her work reflects a commitment to aloha ʻāina, education, and service to Hawaiʻi’s keiki and communities.