Board of Directors

Board of Directors 2021-2022

Ikaika Keliiliki
PELEKIKENA (president)

Ikaika is a graduate student in the library and information science program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is interested in public libraries and currently works at the Hawaiʻi State Library as a library technician. He envisions libraries as spaces where ʻike Hawaiʻi may be created, shared, and preserved in appropriate and authentic ways. When he manages to escape library land, he enjoys making noise with instruments, doodling, eating, and lying down.

Hinano Tangaro
PELEKIKENA HOPE (vice president)

Hinano was born in Honolulu, raised in Ho'olehua and currently lives in Kahuku. She is a second year MLIS student specializing in archival studies. She currently works for a non-profit botanical garden as a nursery specialist where she is involved with maintaining a living collection of plant species from around the world. She is interested in the natural world, perpetuating Hawaiian culture and perspectives and wishes to add to the discussion of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through archivy. On her free time she enjoys making things, traveling, and spending time with family.

Sheri Kelly
KĀKAU ʻŌLELO (secretary)

Sheri is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. With a Master's Degree in Elementary Education, she has an interest in promoting literacy among school-aged children, and is a co-founder of the Ānuenue Hawaiʻi Keiki Book Award, which aims to promote books in which Hawaiʻi's children can see themselves, and to inspire a new generation of local writers. She currently works at the Hawaiʻi State Library in the Hawaiʻi Pacific Section, where she hopes to support the promotion of knowledge and literacy in the broader community. When she gets some time away from school and work, she enjoys spending time with her family, practicing her guitar, cooking, and traveling.

Jessika Ross
PAIKALA (public relations)

Jessika is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She currently works as a library technician at the MCBH Library in Kāne’ohe Bay, where she enjoys organizing cultural and craft programs for kids and adults. She likes to make All The Things, and is currently obsessed with creating art from found marine debris. She also likes spending time outdoors with her family, taking photos of birds, and watching her kids rock climb.

Jason Ford
PUʻUKŪ (treasurer)

Jason was the previous president of NHILHH for the 2020-2021 school year and is currently in the process of finishing his thesis in the Library and Information Science Program at UH Mānoa. His thesis explores how Indigenous research methodologies and epistemologies can inform information literacy in post-secondary instructional librarianship. Broadly, he's passionate about inquiry and empowering people through libraries. He enjoys gardening, long hikes and strolls on the beach with his dog, and hopes to own a cottage and a cozy sustainable farm some day with lots of plants and animals.