2025 Leaders Lab on Maui participants in Wailea, Maui
Written by: Nicole Velasco
We’re kicking off the new year with our inaugural Leaders Lab on Kauaʻi, building on our successful 2025 launch of Labs across the neighbor islands. For the first time in the organization’s history, these Labs represent dreams realized by bringing Hawaiʻi Leadership Forum programming to communities throughout the pae ʻāina.
In 2026, thematic lab participants will complete the three-part workshop experience by inviting one to two team members to collaborate on an enduring systemic challenge. This final convening builds on the second workshop, which recentered Kumu ʻĀina as an essential driver of meaningful change here at home. This perspective reframed the interconnectedness of all systemic challenges regardless of industry and rooted participants’ creative problem-solving in the wisdom of the ʻāina itself.
In 2025, HLF hosted seven Labs across Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island, serving participants from sectors including education, health, community, business, and government.
2025 Leaders Lab on Hawai‘i Island participants in Kamuela, Hawai‘i
2025 Leaders Lab: Community Organizers and Nonprofit Leaders participants in Mānoa, Hawai‘i
Lastly, we extend our mahalo to the Fellows who have shared their time, energy, and aloha as Leaders Lab facilitators: Janice Ikeda, Kalani Kaʻanā‘anā, Karen Lee, Sondra Leiggi Brandon, Kapā Oliveira, Mahina Paishon, Christine Sakuda, Marissa Sandblom, Stephanie Shipton, George Yarbrough, Darcie Yukimura, and Joshua Wisch.
This story appears in the January/February 2026 issue of Taking on Tomorrow.
Lia Hunt and Ashley Lukens talk about a new foundation that has been focused on building a strong foundation rooted in community insight, systems awareness, and family legacy.