My family’s roots run deep in ‘Aiea and Pearl City. I was born in Waipi‘o and was raised in ‘Aiea after living overseas in Japan.
I graduated from Kamehameha Schools and attended the University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa. I earned my bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Like every local family in our community, my mother and father worked hard to provide for their family. My husband Jay and I are now raising our two children — son Kainalu, 14, and Kahiau, 6 — in the very same community that raised me. After becoming a mom and working over 17 years in the hospitality industry, I’ve realized just how hard it can be to raise a family and make ends meet.
About a year ago, I revealed to my loving husband my desire to run for City Council. His response was, “Are you absolutely out of your mind? How can you even consider putting your promising career as a hotel General Manager on hold to be a public servant and take an over 50 percent pay cut on top of that?”
My answer to him was simple: Choice, Chance and Change. We must make the choice to take the chance if we want anything in life to change. After many months of reflection and with the fullest conviction, I welcome this challenge.
As a working mother of two keiki, my husband and I can deeply empathize with every local middle-class family. And it was the experiences that we’ve shared that compelled me to roll up my sleeves and apply my skill set to serve as a conduit for a better Honolulu. The decisions we make today will affect generations to come. We must put families at the forefront of policy.
I’m an effective, open-hearted communicator with a results-oriented management style. If elected, I will use this skill set and management experience, along with my access to the wealth of information granted only to the incumbent to build partnerships with all members of the community and to collaborate with individuals and organizations from all across the public and private sectors.
That’s why I’ve decided to run for Honolulu City Council: to help build opportunity and to fix problems. When I get to Honolulu Hale, I want to get to work immediately putting families first, before political games and special interests. I’m not a politician. I’ve never run for office before. But I am genuinely worried about the burden on our local families and kupuna, who live on fixed-incomes. I want to work to keep our community safe, improve our parks and roads and rebuild the framework of our communities.
I humbly ask for your support.
