Written by: Ben Treviño, Network Coordinator

Fellows lead in different ways, and in Waves of Change we named the patterns of impact we have consistently observed over nine (and soon ten) cohorts.

• Changing Course: Fellows who have taken courageous steps into bold, new roles that align with their values, expertise, and knowledge. 
• Rising Tides: Fellows who have ascended within their organizations and industries, becoming even better poised to create lasting change.
• Redirecting the Current: Fellows who are addressing the deeper structures shaping Hawai‘i by focusing on systemic approaches. 
• Rippling Effect: Fellows who are guiding the flow of Omidyar Fellows principles into new spaces and communities.
• Turning the Tide Toward Resilience: Fellows who, in times of crisis, have stepped forward to meet urgent needs that have since evolved into enduring initiatives.

We saw all five of these patterns at work throughout 2025: 

• Fellows shared their expertise and manaʻo on leading in Hawaiʻi through workshops such as the ʻĀina and Awareness retreat led by Fellow Kūhaʻo Zane and Noah Pomeroy of Mindful Work.
• In May, Act 96—the Green Fee—was signed into law. This work was initiated by Fellows Jack Kittinger and Nicole Velasco in 2019, advanced with Jack and Kāwika Riley with the Care for ʻĀina Now Coalition in 2024, and continued during the second half of 2025 as the Green Fee Advisory Council, which includes Fellows Janice Ikeda and Jeff Mikulina as council chair.
• In the summer, Fellows created timely community spaces for collaboration and leadership capacity building such as the Hawaiʻi Nonprofit Symposium in partnership with HANO and Building Bridges: Aligning Philanthropic and Nonprofit Resources for a New Reality hosted by Fellows Alex Harris, John Leong, and Marisa Hayase.
• In the fall, ten Omidyar Fellows shared what motivates them to serve and what connects them to Hawaiʻi through Season One of A Leader’s Journey.Host and producer Yunji de Nies was inspired by the frank, vulnerable “conversations with a leader” that cohorts experience during curriculum, and thanks to the Fellows willing to open themselves up and share their journeys, viewers got a taste of the fellowship.
• The cover story of the October issue of Hawaiʻi Business magazine, “Stuck in a Bad Job in Hawaiʻi? You’re Not Alone,” was developed with the ʻOhana Workplace Alliance, a group of Fellows who first came together in 2022, raising awareness of unsustainable working conditions for women in the workplace.
• In October and November, Amy Miller, CEO of Hawaiʻi Foodbank, alongside other Fellows rallied around the urgent food crisis created by the government shutdown.

All of these patterns of impact leadership are especially critical in the moment of institutional instability we find ourselves in today. The systems that served previous generations do not seem reliable or durable enough to serve future generations. In order to thrive, we need Hawaiʻi’s networks of relationships to activate and develop new connections—to reconfigure into new systems built for the world we are moving into, not the world we came from. Each of these patterns creates the conditions for new connections, new relationships, new systems. The emergent themes that began taking shape last year hint at what those new systems might look like.

1. Mālama ʻĀina and Climate Justice
2. Thriving ʻOhana and Healthy Relationships
3. Investing in Hawaiʻi’s Keiki and Ōpio 
4. Community Healing and Governance
5. ʻĀina and ʻIke Driven Innovation
6. Workforce and Leadership Development
7. Regenerative Business Economy

The Waves of Change report also detailed how Fellows’ Seeding Impact projects contribute to each emergent theme, giving us a preview of the building blocks of these new systems.

Our Fellows-led network is actively rising to meet this moment. Because it is decentralized and operates from multiple perspectives, processes, and methods, it is well-situated to adapt to whatever conditions arrive. Because a deep and shared commitment to Hawaiʻi binds it together, it is poised to build as other systems start to come apart. That commitment is also our connection to our deepest well of resilience all of the relationships and networks that make up Hawaiʻi. 

As Janice Ikeda put it in her episode of A Leader’s Journey:

“We don’t need to look beyond Hawaiʻi to find the answers to the problems that we face here. What is it that we can learn from our ʻāina? What is it that we can learn from our kūpuna? What can we learn and how can we adapt what they have demonstrated to us?”

The Forum of Fellows Network evolution from a group of individuals to the beginnings of a true Impact Network was further shaped by the unprecedented change of 2025. While the waves of change battering our shores may have been born in far off storms, it was ultimately our grounding in local cycles of change that drove our ability to adapt.