Our founding team, we are so proud of the work that was done during our inaugural year. We cranked out a lot of powerful content but alas....once things got more to in-person and life's demands happened, most of our team went back to kicking ass and taking names out in community. RCR will never forget the legacy you created in such a short amount of time!
Tina G., Host
Tina is a writer, activist, and academic from Mililani. As an Uchinanchu (Okinawan) woman born and raised in occupied Hawaiʻi, she is passionate about building decolonial futures rooted in
Indigenous placed-based knowledge. After completing her MA in Indigenous Politics at UH Mānoa, she spent the last five years in Melbourne, Australia, where she began her PhD in Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University. Her work examines Hawaiʻi’s housing crisis through an aloha ʻāina lens. Back home after too long away, Tina is feeling whole, and ready to fight for a better future for Hawaiʻi. She is a lecturer in UH Mānoa’s Political Science Department, a board member with Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice, and has been working with the Cancel RIMPAC Coalition to demilitarize Hawaiʻi and Oceania. Her mantra these days is: Decolonize, deoccupy, demilitarize… then surf!
Anna C., Social Media
Born and raised in Malaysia, Anna is an organizer-in-learning and undergraduate student at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Pursuing a double major in Peace & Conflict Studies and Psychology has guided her to tread various paths that encompass activism, education, and advocacy on Oʻahu, one of which led her to join the RCR family. Anna’s cultural roots and upbringing in Southeast Asia sprouted the community-centered approach that is embedded in her passions and commitments.
Access to education has allowed Anna to connect with a wide spectrum of people with intersectional identities and stories, and these experiences shape her lifelong responsibility to fight for systemic change and decolonial justice in Hawaiʻi, back home, and beyond. Anna currently organizes with the Hawaiʻi Youth Climate Coalition, AiKea, and Hoʻohuli Youth. She finds her balance through the joys in life that come with eating hearty vegan food, slow hikes, finding new music, and binging ASMR videos.
Lauren B-W, Producer/Editor
Lauren is a third-generation working-class Chicana and poet from East Los Angeles. Her identity informs her passion for justice and storytelling. She currently works for the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi and has found a profound sense of purpose centering the work around intersectional environmental justice; exposing ugly truths about our systems and co-create a better way forward.
After graduating from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, she worked with UNITE HERE Local 5 labor union and learned how to connect deeply rooted values to movement building. During time in L.A, Lauren spent time at a Latinx theater collective that celebrated the unique voices of women and since moving back, she volunteers with Hawai‘i Playbuilders - a local, community-based theatre company. Lauren is a vegan foodie, reality show binger, and proud mama.
Kirsten K., Communications
Kirsten is passionate about helping the do good-ers of the islands succeed, but recognizes that the issues that our communities face are often complex—so she strives to demystify the issues at hand and help communities build their power to care for their home and resources. Kirsten is currently the Strategic Communications Manager for the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi and was a Marine Conservation Fellow at The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi, a Kupu Hawaiʻi Youth Conservation Corps alumni, and holds a BS in Marine Biology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. A diy-er at heart, Kirsten also teaches community yoga classes and enjoys hiking, diving and vegan baking. Now rooted on Kauaʻi, she spends her time homesteading and cuddling her dog, two cats and Sunny the bunny.
Carly R., Research
Carly earned her masters degree in education from Chaminade University and taught science at Waiʻanae High School. Her current position is creating educational workshops and assisting environmental justice research as a Faculty Assistant at the University of Maryland’s Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health.
Living far from loved ones during the pandemic and reflective time with the RCR team brought Carly back to the land that first nurtured her. She is grateful to be re-rooting herself with family, strengthening her relationship to the place where she grew up, and continuing to make episodes.
Comments