Miwa Tamanaha (she/her) considers herself  a “recovering economist” — holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Economics from the University of Southern California. For over 20 years, she has worked in environmental policy and environmental justice advocacy in communities from urban Los Angeles to Hawaiʻi to  rural parts of Tanzania. Over the last two decades, her practice has come to focus more specifically on community organizing, community-building, and facilitative leadership as tools for advancing care for people and place.

​

Miwa’s ancestors first came to Hawaiʻi in the late 1800s to work sugar plantations; she is the fifth generation of her family to call Hawaiʻi home.

​

From 2011 – 2021, Miwa served as a co-founder and co-leader of Kua‘āina Ulu ‘Auamo (KUA), helping to grow the backbone organization which today serves over 1,000 fishers, farmers and families from over 70 communities in Hawaiʻi working to steward ancestral lands and waters. During her time at KUA, Miwa raised millions of dollars in support of community-based natural resource management initiatives, and was instrumental in designing KUA’s foundational program philosophy, program design, organizational structure, and moral compass.

​

In 2021, Miwa embarked on a 9-month sabbatical. "The times are urgent. Let us slow down." - Bayo Akomolafe

​

In 2022, Miwa was tapped for an Impact Residency with social impact finance intermediary Hawaiʻi Investment Ready (HIR). Miwa today serves as HIR’s first “Artist-in-Residence,” bringing the richness of her years of experience and the wisdom of her many teachers to the art of community-building at HIR. Her primary role at HIR is to provide mentorship and co-create community-building practices with the HIR team. Miwa is also a frequent collaborator with community-based research firm, Groundswell, and a sought-after facilitator, writer, speaker, and coach/thought partner.

​

With support from HIR, Miwa is pursuing a next economy MBA, with an eye to understanding the role of gender equity and social impact finance in the world.

​

Miwa currently serves as a founding member of the Limu Hui, a member of ʻEwa Limu Project, and volunteers on the Board for the Hawaii Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development (HACBED) and Life of the Land. She has been working to deepen her nohona Hawai'i through training with Hālau ʻOhiʻa since 2018.

​

Prior to her time at KUA, Miwa served as the Policy and Communications Director for the Santa Monica Bay Commission (National Estuary Program, EPA) and Executive Director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, a grassroots advocacy non-profit committed to indigenous land rights and environmental protections. At KAHEA, she and counsel Marti Townsend and team helped lead successful advocacy efforts together with impacted communities for inter-generational protections for Mauna Kea, perpetuation of agriculture on lands in the community of Waiʻanae, and bioprospecting bans for Paphānaumokuākea.

​

Miwa is a cis, hetero, shimanchu partner, mother, friend, facilitator, advocate, ally, limu (seaweed) nerd and undercover instantpot blog reader. She surfs occasionally, hikes regularly, and has an admitted weakness for reality television. Her home is in Waipiʻo, ʻEwa, Oʻahu, her ʻone hānau is Tongva, and her ancestral lands are Naha, Okinawa.

​

(Thank you to Chloe Hartwell, HIR Communications Manager and Coach, for helping me put this together. Gratitude also to Kim Moa for her authorship of parts of the writing used above.)

​

​

​