Board of Directors

The Pasifika Foundation Hawai‘i board is comprised entirely of native Pacific Island people who have backgrounds in cultural practice, law, academics, business development and environmental-sustainability consulting and bring to all PFH projects a deep understanding of the values and traditions of the communities that each project is designed to serve.

Native Hawaiian Ramsay Taum serves as Pasifika Foundation Hawaii’s Board President. He is also Director of External Affairs and Community Partnerships at the School of Travel Industry Management (TIM) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he also serves as the Dean’s Special Assistant on Host Culture and Community Affairs. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from USC, Mr. Taum skillfully integrates and incorporates his knowledge and understanding as a practitioner and teacher of ho‘oponopono (stress management, conflict mediation and resolution), lomi haha (body alignment) and Kaihewalu lua (Hawaiian combat/ battle art) into contemporary business topics. As an active community advocate, Ramsay serves on numerous local and national boards, advisory groups and councils.

Board Vice President Isaac Harp, a native Hawaiian, is a former commercial fisherman who comes from a long history of Hawaiian fishers/farmers from the Honokohau Iki area of Kona where his family cared for many of the fishponds along the Kona coast. He is also a board member of the ‘Ilio’ulaokalani Coalition, an organization of Native Hawaiians with a mission to protect the integrity of Hawaiian cultural activities, the right to their ongoing practices, protecting culturally significant sites, protecting intellectual property rights, protecting the trusts established by Hawaii’s royalty, and educating Native Hawaiians on political issues.

Dr. Sania Fa’amaile Betty P. Ickes, of Tokelauan and Samoan descent, is the Foundation’s Secretary/Treasurer. Her background includes leadership and professional service in non-profit governance, business management, and academic research. She is multi-lingual (Tokelaun, Samoan, English) and considers herself blessed to have been raised in extended Tokelauan and Samoan families throughout the Pacific. She earned her doctorate in the History of Pacific Islands after leaving a business career in purchasing, marketing, and human resource management, and currently serves as the Executive Director for Te Taki Tokelau Community, Inc., a grassroots-driven non-profit organization that provides Tokelau language education in Central Oahu and manages programs and projects that document, revitalize, and enhance the native language of Tokelauans in the Hawai’i diaspora. She is an occasional instructor for the Department of History and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and volunteers as a Tokelau language instructor for the Lago Foe class (Gr. 2-4) at Te Lumanaki School.

Pasifika Foundation Hawaii board member Dr. Lynette Hi‘ilani Cruz is native Hawaiian and an Assistant Professor in Hawai’i Pacific University’s Anthropology Program. She also is a founder and current president of Ka Lei Maile Ali’i Hawaiian Civic Club. She is the coordinator of the Ahupua’a Action Alliance, a coalition of grass-roots environmental and Hawaiian organizations that promote traditional resource management practices to protect, preserve and restore the life of the land throughout the Hawaiian islands.

Board member Clarence Ku Ching, a Maoli cultural practitioner, athlete, attorney, activist and self-sufficiency farmer, lives on Hawai‘i Island. A former trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, he has been a leader in the issues of Hawaiian rights regarding the use of the sacred mountain Mauna Kea by the international astronomy community. Mr. Ching was one of the crew that constructed the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hawai’iloa, and his own Pasifik voyages have included serving as a Hawai‘i delegate to the Independent and Nuclear Free Pacific forum in Nuku’alofa, Tonga and as a representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in Fiji.