The Commission

Alex Harris has spent his career working to improve educational opportunity for young people. He currently leads the grantmaking team for the Hawaii-based Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, where his work helps more low-income students to access good jobs by obtaining a promising degree or credential. Alex has prior public sector leadership experience in the Hawaii Department of Education and DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education and has led large initiatives for the National Governors Association, Council for Chief State School Officers and US Education Delivery Institute supporting transformation of school districts and systems.

Harris is a board member of AdvanceCTE and the National Career Academy Coalition and sits on the organizing committee for Grantmakers for Education’s national conference. He holds degrees from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and Brown University and lives in Windward Oahu with his wife and two sons.

Jill Baldemor began her career in education as a Teach For America corps member and 2nd grade teacher in Washington Heights, New York City. She returned home to Hawai‘i in 2000 and practiced law with Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel. In 2007, she became the Executive Director of Teach For America, Hawai‘i, which focuses on educational equity and excellence by finding, developing, and supporting diverse leaders as they work to expand opportunity and life options for all our young people. Jill now serves as Senior Vice President and Regional Field Executive for Teach For America. Over the years, Jill has worked with Title I public schools across Hawaiʻi Island and Oʻahu. Jill previously served on the Hawai‘i State Public Charter School Commission from 2014-2017 and 2020-2023.

Brandon Keoni Bunag is the Vice President of Public Programs and interim Director of Education at
Bishop Museum. He is responsible for all public operations as well as programmatic-related initiatives of
the Museum, including the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of the Museum’s
education initiatives and programs. These include on-site school field trips, outreach, planetarium and
communityy, public and daily programs.

He previously served on Hālau Kū Māna’s (HKM) Governing Board and later its Poʻo Kula (Head of
School). Before HKM, Brandon worked at Kamehameha Schools in the Extension Education Division.
There, he was responsible for the planning and execution of Hoʻomākaiʻikaʻi, the long-standing summer
boarding program that connected students to their kūpuna through moʻolelo, mele, oli, hula, and
cultural site visits. He was also instrumental in expanding the Hoʻolauna and Kūlia I Ka Pono summer
programs to communities across the Pae ʻĀina. Collectively, the Explorations Series were programs
designed to provide opportunities for haumāna to connect with their culture and community while
gaining a sense of kuleana. These experiences and the opportunity to serve on the Commission is fueled
by a deep passion for Hawaiian culture-based and community-based education that puts student
success at its core.

Brandon earned a bachelor’s degree in Hawaiian Studies and a master’s degree in Political Science from
the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He attained an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University
of Southern California where his research focused on resource allocation in Hawaiian-focused charter
schools. He was born and raised in Halawa, Oʻahu and continues to reside there with his wife and two
keiki, both whom have previously attended public charter schools.

Donna Ann Kameha’iku Camvel is the Education Systems Specialist for Ka Lama Education Academy, one of ten programs under the Institute for Native Pacific Education & Culture or INPEACE. Her family, the Līhuʻe, Kahanu, Pāoa, Kea, Lono ʻohana are kupaʻāina from the ʻili of ʻIolekaʻa in the Heʻeʻia Ahupuaʻa and Kamehaʻiku has served the Heʻeʻia community for the last thirty-five years.

Co-founding the Ahupuaʻa Restoration Council of Heʻeʻia in 1999 as a successful grassroots community platform which led to the restorative efforts taking place in the Heʻeʻia ahupuaʻa today, she is well aquainted with community service. She attended the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for her undergraduate degree in Womenʻs Studies and Hawaiian Studies, continuing on to earn a M.A. in Hawaiian Studies and in 2020, successfully defended her dissertation, “Hoʻoulu ʻĀina: Restoration in the Heʻeʻia Ahupuaʻa, to earn her doctoral degree. For twenty-five years she has taught Hawaiian Studies at Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the last six years at Windward Community College. As a kumu, cultural practitioner and matriarch of her ‘ohana, Kameha’iku has served and continues to serve her community with place-based mālama and aloha ʻāina educational & cultural opportunities at her ʻohana’s kuleana in ʻIolekaʻa.

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.

Cathy is the granddaughter of teachers, the daughter of teachers, the mother of a teacher and a teacher of teachers. Her life work continues to be on normalizing Hawaiian culture based education practices in the classroom for all of Hawaiʻi’s students. She earned a B.A. in English, a secondary teaching certification and an M.Ed. from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Cathy also earned an Ed.D. in Professional Educational Practice from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has taught grades 6-12 for 23 years on Hawaiʻi Island and is currently an Assistant Professor of Middle/Secondary Education at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu.

Mrs. Keolani Noa was born and raised in the ahupuaʻa of Kuliʻouʻou, where her ʻohana has resided for seven generations. She is deeply committed to preserving Hawaiʻi’s traditional practices, promoting higher education, and fostering cross-cultural learning and understanding. Mrs. Noa is the recipient of the Ellison Onizuka National Award and has been inducted into the NEA’s National Women’s Historical Biography. She is a Hawaiian visionary and co-founder of the UH-Manoa STEM Maile Mentoring Program and Project ʻOlona, which integrates lāʻau lapaʻau with chemistry research. Her contributions include co-authoring STEM publications and designing the Model of Understanding: Unlocking the Mind to Academia by Merging Moʻolelo with Science.