Officers & Board Members
Oceana Puananilei Francis, Ph.D., P.E.
President and Founding Board Member
Oceana Francis is Native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i. She is a Professor in the College of Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Sea Grant College Program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She received her PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and is a licensed PE in Hawai’i and Alaska. Her research interests are in hydrodynamic hazards and their effects on infrastructure systems. She is the founder of Society of Native Hawaiian Engineers (SNHE) and serves as President (since 2018). She also serves in American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as faculty advisor (since 2020) and as the Fairbanks Branch President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer (2008-2011).
Joshua Ka‘akua, Ed.D., MBA
Vice President and Founding Board Member
Joshua Ka‘akua is a Native Hawaiian who grew up in Waimanalo, O‘ahu and is a graduate of Punahou High School. He is the Program Officer of Academic Affairs at the Office of the Vice President for Community Colleges for the University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges, where he focuses on improving college access and representation of underrepresented minorities in STEM. Josh received his B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, his MBA from Shidler College of Business at UH Mānoa, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California.
Melia Iwamoto, Ph.D.
Treasurer and Founding Board Member
Dr. Melia Talagi was born and raised in Kaimuki and graduated from Kalani High School. She earned her Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and doctorate degrees in Civil Engineering with a focus on geotechnical engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) in 2011, 2014, and 2018. Melia was recognized as the first Native Hawaiian to earn a doctorate in engineering from UHM.
Dr. Talagi is currently practicing engineering in Honolulu at Yogi Kwong Engineers. She is working towards earning her professional engineering license and occasionally lectures courses for the UHM Civil Engineering Department.
Kealohi Sandefur, P.E.
Secretary and Board Member
Kelli Ching, MBA
Founding Board Member
Kelli Ching is a Native Hawaiian and serves as the Director of the Native Hawaiian Science and Engineering Mentorship Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. A graduate from Punahou High School, Kelli received her MBA from the Shidler College of Business at UH Mānoa following her Economics degree from Boston College.
Michael Chun, Ph.D., P.E.
Founding Board Member
Appointed President of The Kamehameha Schools in 1988, Dr. Michael J. Chun served his alma mater for 24 years in that capacity, retiring in 2012. Prior to leading Kamehameha Schools, Dr. Chun was Vice President of Park Engineering from 1985 to 1988; Chief Engineer of the City and County of Honolulu from 1981 to 1985; and Associate Professor in the College of Engineering and School of Public Health at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa from 1970 to 1981.
Dr. Chun earned his bachelors of science degree in Civil Engineering and doctorate degree in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Kansas and his master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Dr. Chun is a registered professional engineer in the State of Hawai’i.
Keanu Kuna, P.E.
Board Member
Keanu Kuna was born and raised in Kailua, Oahu, and graduated from Kamehameha Schools. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil / Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern California. He obtained his professional engineering license in 2004 and general contractor license in 2012. Keanu has worked at some of the largest engineering and construction companies in Hawaii, including 12 years as a project manager for Nan Inc. His experience includes all aspects of civil design, residential construction, heavy building construction, heavy civil infrastructure, roadways, concrete, deep foundations, structural steel, and bridge building. Keanu is currently working on growing his construction company, Uluniu Construction.
Frank J. Camacho, P.E.
Board Member
Frank Camacho is a Native Hawaiian who received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s (UHM) College of Engineering and is a Registered Professional Engineer in Hawai‘i. While at UHM, Frank was a member of the Native Hawaiian Science & Engineering Mentorship Program. Currently, he is a project manager at Community Planning & Engineering, Inc. and executes a full range of engineering projects related to site planning and land development, water distribution systems, wastewater collection systems, storm drainage and flood control systems, and traffic and transportation engineering projects.
Jay Vannatta
Founding Board Member
Sean Osurman
Founding Board Member
Sean Osurman is Native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Kane’ohe, Hawai’i. Currently, he is a design engineer for the Actuation Vertical at The Boeing Company. Sean is a participant and the direct product of the academically-progressive and indigenous-centric undergraduate initiatives: Indigenous Knowledge of Engineering, Pre-Engineering Education Collaborative, and the Native Hawaiian Science and Engineering Mentorship Program. He received his B.S. Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and is one of the student founders of Society of Native Hawaiian Engineers.
Past Officers, Board Members, & Staff
Rachael Han
Past Executive Assistant
Rachael is an M.S. student in the department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (expected May 2022). She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering with a minor in Environmental Studies from Santa Clara University in June 2020. In addition to SNHE, Rachael worked with UH’s Institute for Sustainability and Resilience where she provided research support for the Honolulu Climate Change Commission, and her current research focuses on conducting and analyzing stakeholder assessments on Maui County coastal roads with the Coastal Hydraulics Engineering Resiliency (CHER) lab. Rachael is currently working for the UH Institute for Sustainability and Resilience as the Climate Impacts Research Specialist, where she is executing a research agenda on sea level rise adaptation in Hawai‘i.
Hannah Harrison
Past Executive Assistant
Hannah was the SNHE Executive Assistant from 2019 to 2020. She graduated from Colorado State University in 2019 with a bachelor’s in Ecosystem Science & Sustainability and a minor in Sustainable Water. In 2020, she completed her master’s in Civil Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). While attending UHM, Hannah was a member of the Coastal Hydraulics Engineering Resilience (CHER) lab and researched how modeling can be used as a method for planning stormwater management in Hawaii. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University, researching the hydrodynamics of arctic lakes in the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories of Canada.