Opening Plenary and Ceremonies:
Monday April 7th, 2025
10:30AM - 12:30PM HST
Opening Protocol by Dolly Tatofi, MSW, LCSW
Opening Comments by Sandi Capuano Morrison, MA, CEO, IVAT
Plenary Speaker: Miki Tomita, PhD - Founder & CEO of Education Incubator
Born and raised on Maui, Miki graduated from HP Baldwin High School, then completed a BSE in Biosystems Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and a PhD in education at Stanford University. She has worked in education for 20 years as a teacher, administrator, curriculum developer, and research, working to create opportunities for positive change for our planet and people, through her time at UH Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture, Pacific American Foundation, Hawaiʻi School Peace Gardens, Hawaiʻi Public Charter School Network, Janus Group, Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association, most recently as the Education Director at Polynesian Voyaging Society for the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage of Hōkůle’a and Hikianalia, and for a decade as a mother to her daughter Mayumi.
Her work is anchored at the intersection of education and innovation, with a sharp focus on placing youth at the center for transforming society’s greatest challenges into opportunities for learning, innovation and reinvention of a healthy, abundant world.
Closing Plenary & Ceremonies
Thursday April 10th, 2025
11:00AM - 12:45PM
Closing Protocol by Dolly Tatofi, MSW, LCSW
Closing Comments by Sandi Capuano Morrison, MA, CEO, IVAT
Plenary Speaker: Daniel Siegel, MD - Mindsight Institute & UCLA
Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, a Harvard-trained physician and UCLA-trained psychiatrist, is a renowned expert in interpersonal neurobiology, mindfulness, and attachment theory. He is the Founder and Director of Education at the Mindsight Institute and a founding co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. An award-winning educator, Dr. Siegel has authored numerous acclaimed works, including The Developing Mind and Mindsight, and co-authored several bestselling parenting books, such as The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. His publications, translated into over 40 languages, explore the integration of the mind, brain, and relationships. Dr. Siegel lectures globally, offering insights to diverse audiences, including healthcare providers, educators, and world leaders.
Art Installation of UMEKE
Mele, Aunty Lynette Paglinawan and Manu in front of Mele’s UMEKE
This plenary address will be an "esoteric expression of function" (Aunty Lynette Paglinawan). What this means is that our Arts, our Mediation, our Foods, our Ways of Thinking, our Agencies, our Policies, and all multiple expressions of society....are now intersecting for a world-wide shared purpose - Healing. Come ready to see and understand a collective ARTS INSTALLATION (via images) of an UMEKE (wooden Hawaiian bowl) that has been fixed via the PEWA process. The PEWA is an ancient way Hawaiians mended broken and split wood bowls. Come to hear how feeling something via art, sound and the written word helps this process of healing actualize, especially in a public setting. Come to hear from the founding visionary of this large UMEKE (fits 20 people inside) and hear her own process in becoming a Haku Hoʻoponopono. Hoʻoulu aku, hoʻoulu mai. Our growth is collective.
Plenary Speaker: Meleanna Aluli Meyer, Kanaka Artist and Community Activist dedicated to ʻike kupuna + mōʻike aloha
Meleanna Aluli Meyer is a practicing artist and arts educator, has dedicated her life to helping creativity blossom in our youth and adults for the purpose of healing. Freedom for sister Mele is found in generating peace and self-awareness through artistic expression found in every medium (paint, sculpture, clay, writing, drawing, film, justice work, and food!) Mele is currently finishing a large and extensive installation focusing on the pewa of a gigantic umeke (bowl) to be exhibited in the upcoming Honolulu Triennial. The pewa is how our wood bowls were repaired and made useful again. This installation will be big enough for 15 people to sit inside (!) and the names found in the KUĒ Petition (Anti-Annexation Petition of 1898) will be recorded and heard within its large and safe walls.
Plenary Speaker: Dr. Manu Aluli Meyer, Kanaka Scholar-Practitioner dedicated to world-wide awakening
Manulani Aluli Meyer, twin sister of Moana, is a global scholar-practitioner dedicated to the role Indigenous thinking will play in world-wide awakening. She is also a haku hoʻoponopono extending and transforming ʻike kupuna, knowledge from our elders, found in this healing practice needed for our times. Manu recognizes the pono of truth and understands that ALOHA is the primal source of our collective evolution. Dr. Aluli Meyer is educated by the natural world and has a passion for growing uluniu - coconut groves – as this teaches her the pono of true wealth and the function of a Sharing Economy. She is an orator and shares that practice with all members of her ʻohana. Her second book: Hoʻopono: Mutual Emergence is coming in 2025.