Lei (Leinaʻala) Ahu Isa

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Photo: Leinaʻala Ahu Isa

At-Large candidate

  • Age | 69
  • Occupation | OHA Trustee, Broker, Adjunct Professor
  • Where did you grow up | Honolulu, Oʻahu
  • Schooling | UH Mānoa, Graceland, UV Darden
  • Current residence | Kakaʻako, Oʻahu
  • Website | www.linkedin.com/in/lei-ahu-isa-phd-06816412/
Question 1Question 2Question 3Question 4Question 5
How are you currently serving (or have served) the lāhui? Please list the Native Hawaiian-serving organizations you are (or have been) affiliated with, the duration of your involvement, and your role/activities within those organizations.
Please provide an example of your community work to implement a project, initiative, grant or program. Please include your specific role and the outcomes for the community.
Please provide an example of your experience working collaboratively with other professionals to establish policies.
How and with whom can OHA collaborate to address and strengthen the economic stability of our lāhui?
How and with whom can OHA collaborate to address the related issues of affordable housing and houselessness in the Native Hawaiian community?

Aloha Mai Kākou!

As OHA approaches a culmination in 2022 of 43 years of effort and accomplishments, it is very important to review just what we have been trying to achieve and how we have been going about it. The more solidly we lay the foundations for OHA’s success, the greater our capability for achievement at this time. But if we have broken the rules, done what is not pono, and have taken shortcuts, then we have only ourselves to blame. For kūpunas, this is one of the most important times in our lives. It is almost as if you have been climbing a mountain for many years, and now the “peak” is in sight.

The areas where OHA has prepared carefully will now become tremendously productive. Our opportunities are at a “peak” for achievement and for additional responsibility and power. If OHA tries to avoid its increased responsibilities, we might run the risk of losing everything, even in the areas where we have prepared well and have taken responsibility. Completing our Financial Sustainability Plan gives us the ability to work on particularly exacting and detailed creative projects, from education, health and culture. The degree of stability achieved at this time will greatly help our beneficiaries have a solid core of assets into perpetuity. I’ve been involved with Kanu o Ka ʻĀina Charter School, Pōhai ʻo Kamehameha, Hālau Ka Leo o Laka i ka Hikina o ka Lā, Hālau Kealiʻikaʻapunihonua Keʻena Aʻo Hula, Ke Kula ʻo Samuel M. Kamakau Charter School, and many more…Not enuf room…

Help me to help OHA survive! It will survive only if we are able to satisfy the “REAL” needs of our people. We must be particularly conscious of this now. The more “REAL” our objectives are, the more OHA can help our beneficiaries by making benevolent choices.

Communication will take on a more important role at OHA. We need to share with everyone, be more transparent, and become a proselytizer for new ideas as we try to break others out of their rigid patterns of thinking. If we take advantage of these opportunities and create a need for “newness of life” at OHA, great things are possible. OHA should be striving to improve conditions of all Native Hawaiians around us: to use our influence to help everyone concerned to grow with us.

Patience and perseverance carried us through!!! We did it. The legislature finally approved $64M! Now we can accomplish a great deal by transferring our energies to productive areas. Onipaʻa!!!

A hui hou, Trustee Lei Ahu Isa

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