East Maui Water Authority Community Conversation Series
Maui community members and water resource experts invited to meet June 16-18 to support Maui residents in shaping a sustainable, equitable, and community-led future for East Maui’s watershed.
The focus of all meetings will be community-driven solutions for water resource management to ensure a healthy resilient ecosystem, thriving local communities, and water availability for food security.
Event Schedule June 16-18, 2025
Monday, June 16, 2025: Ke‘anae Uka, Ke‘anae – Community Members Only
RSVP required for the field trip, contact: [email protected]
4:00pm Community Forum
View Full Keʻanae Events Details
Tuesday, June 17, 2025:
11:00am, Maui County Planning Department Conference Room 250 South High St.
Hybrid Virtual Meeting: Link to Join Online
View Funding Infrastructure Panel Event Details
Tuesday, June 17, 2025:
5:30pm: Kula Community Center – Community Forum
Wednesday, June 18, 2025:
6:30pm: Haʻikū Community Center – Community Forum
About our Hosts
Gina Young
Director, East Maui Water Authority
Host
Prior to being sworn in as the Director of the East Maui Water Authority, Gina Young was an executive assistant to East Maui Councilmember Shane Sinenci and worked on the County’s Water Use and Development Plan, cultural resource protection legislation and environmental legislation, including writing the country’s strongest public lands pesticide regulations law. Young previously worked as a senior planner in the County Department of Planning. She served as president, vice president and secretary of the Kula Community Association and was vice chair of the Hawaiʻi Health System Corporation Maui Region Board of Directors. She earned a bachelorʻs degree in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a masterʻs degree in public administration from The George Washington University.
Shay Chan Hodges
Host
Shay Chan Hodges has served as a Community and Stakeholder engagement consultant for diverse projects, ranging from water access and food security solutions to community energy design and innovative community finance. For the last four years, Shay has been working with the `Āina Data Hui, initially established as the NASA Harvest Project, a collaboration between University of Maryland data scientists and the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, Maui United Way, farmers and other stakeholders. The group has grown to include Arizona State University, Hulihia, and the Maui County Department of Agriculture, prioritizing community-based data solutions to support farmers, especially small-scale and indigenous farmers, with a goal of increasing food production and availability, and closing gaps in food access. Shay is also the Co-Lead of the Upcountry Energy Resilience Project, designed to empower Maui residents – especially those affected by the 2023 Upcountry fires.
As Vice Chair and Chair of the Maui County Board of Water Supply from 2016-2021, Shay became well-versed in Maui County’s complex water systems, and with two fellow board members, researched and wrote the Temporary Investigative Group Report, Feasibility of Purchasing and Maintaining the EMI Water Delivery System as well as reports assessing the potential purchase of the Wailuku Water System.
Shay has more than a decade of experience in meeting standards for sustainable businesses, social responsibility, and Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Analysis, serving as Benefit Director of one of the first Sustainable Business Corporations incorporated in Hawaii. Shay also has more than two decades of experience as a Hawaiʻi-based grant and technical writer for local nonprofits, and has owned and operated a children’s bookstore in Upcountry Maui.
About the Expert Presenters
Dr. Karletta Chief
Professor, University of Arizona
Director, AIR/Haury Indigenous Resilience Center (IRC)
Speaker
Dr. Karletta Chief (Diné) is a Professor & Extension Specialist in Environmental Science at the University of Arizona. She is the director of the Indigenous Resilience Center and lead for the NSF Indigenous Food, Energy, and Water Security and Sovereignty Training Program. Indige-FEWSS’s vision is to develop a diverse workforce with intercultural awareness and expertise in sustainable food, energy, and water systems (FEWS), specifically through off grid technologies to address the lack of safe water, energy, and food security in Indigenous communities. Dr. Karletta Chief grew up on the Navajo Nation without electricity and running water. Her family live within the Peabody Coal Company leasehold area. Her lived personal experiences of environmental injustice and as a first-generation graduate motivate her to devote all her environmental research to supporting the resilience of Indigenous communities and training of students in sustainable technologies. Her primary Navajo projects include “Navajo COVID-19 Risks and Indigenous Resilience and Gold King Mine Spill Diné Exposure Project. Dr. Chief received a B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University in 1998 and 2000 and a Ph.D. in Hydrology and Water Resources from UArizona in 2007. She completed her post-doctorate at Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas, NV. In 2011, Dr. Chief was named American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Most Promising Scientist/Scholar, 2013 Stanford University Distinguished Alumni Scholar, 2015 Native American 40 under 40, 2016 AISES Professional of the Year, and 2016 Phoenix Indian Center Woman of the Year.
Andrew Simmons
Consultant to the Public Finance Initiative, Pew Charitable Trusts State Infrastructure Project
Speaker
Andrew Simmons, a consultant to the Public Finance Initiative on the organization’s body of work for the Pew Charitable Trusts, is an urban development strategist and social scientist committed to context-sensitive, integrated approaches to development. Working at the intersection of the public and private sectors, he provides interdisciplinary advisory and strategic planning that spans urban infrastructure and investment, climate-policy analysis and ESG-integration, impact evaluation, and place-based approaches to development.
As director of urban innovation and sustainability impact with the London-based Resilience Brokers, Andrew works with a variety of local authorities, university research centers, developers, and multilateral institutions on climate resilience, civic technology, open data policies, sustainability-driven master plans, green infrastructure, and market-aligned visions for urban regeneration projects that produce wide-ranging public benefits. Past appointments include serving as a project manager contractor on a major mixed-use, mixed-income property development by Eastern Market on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., completed in 2017, and with the PPJ consortium as heritage planner for the Vietnam Ministry of Construction’s Greater Hanoi Capital Master Plan. With Arup, the famed U.K. engineering consultancy, Andrew led a team of social scientists from the Shanghai office for Arup’s world-pioneering, low-carbon planning projects in China, the U.K., and beyond. Andrew is a guest lecturer and critic at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and has reviewed planning projects for the World Bank. Recent co-authored publications include, “The healthy city: A futuristic reimagining of the urban economy and built environment and vision for the city in 2050,” a report for the U.K.’s Key Cities group, and “Financing renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects: public equity instruments: an analysis of REITs, MLPs and yieldcos,” for the National Institute of Building Sciences.
Sam Smalls
Treasury and Debt Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Virtual Speaker
Sam Smalls joined Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (“Metropolitan”) in March 2021 to the position of Manager of Treasury and Debt Management in the Office of the CFO. In this role, Mr. Smalls leads a section responsible for cash management, investment portfolio management, treasury operations, debt issuance and management, property tax program management, and administration of the District 39s Procurement Card (P-Card) program. Mr. Smalls has had a 30-year career in municipal finance as a municipal advisor, state agency executive director, and wholesale/investment banker. Before Metropolitan, Mr. Smalls served as head of California Public Finance at several large and boutique investment banking firms. Mr. Smalls was a generalist banker, assisting with municipal infrastructure bond financing of over $20 billion as lead or co-senior manager and over $160 billion as co-manager. Mr. Smalls previously worked in the public sector as Executive Director of the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, an appointed position by the California State Treasurer. Mr. Smalls also served as Assistant Vice President/Deputy Director of Policy, Research & Planning for the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Mr. Smalls began his professional career as a municipal advisor with Public Financial Management, where he served a broad array of municipal clients, including cities, counties, special districts, transportation agencies, and toll road agencies throughout California. Mr. Smalls is an alumnus of CORO’s Leadership Southern California leadership development program and has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies cum laude from Harvard College.
About the Public Finance Initiative Team Presenters
Lourdes German
Executive Director
The Public Finance Initiative
Lourdes Germán, J.D., began her career after graduating from Boston College and the Boston University School of Law as a public finance attorney at the law firm Palmer & Dodge LLP (now Locke Lord LLP – will become Troutman Pepper Locke on January 1, 2025) and then led investment banking efforts in the Northeast and New York Tri-State region as Vice President of Municipal Finance at Fidelity Investments. She then served as Vice President and General Counsel at Breckinridge Capital Advisors, founded a small financial services start-up, and then served as a Director at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy where she helped launch and lead a global program of work on municipal fiscal health, which included activities in partnership with the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, and engagement with members of congress via the first Congressional Briefing focused on the fiscal health of cities. At Lincoln, Lourdes served on the team of expert advisors for the municipal finance policy unit who developed the frameworks in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Lourdes has also worked with several higher education institutions including Boston College, where she served as co-director of the Managing for Social Impact Program and Assistant Professor of Practice, Boston University, and the Northeastern University School of Law. Outside of her role leading the Public Finance Initiative, Lourdes serves on the faculty of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where she teaches Public Finance. In addition, Lourdes serves as a senior advisor to several foundations and nonprofits, including the Kresge Foundation’s Social Investment Practice. She also served for 7 years as the appointed chair of the Massachusetts State Finance and Governance Board and served on the boards of the Rappaport Center for Law & Policy at BC Law, the board of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and on the board of trustees of Claremont Lincoln University
Katy Hansen
Director
Rural & Small Cities Program
The Public Finance Initiative
Katy is committed to improving local public services. Most recently, she worked to advance equity in federal assistance for water infrastructure as a Senior Advisor at the EPA and a Deputy Director at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Previously, Katy worked on increasing access to services with the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice in rural Alabama, the Association for Water and Rural Development in South Africa, and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in the Middle East. She holds a BS in Engineering from Montana State University, an MSc in Water Science, Policy, and Management from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD in Environmental Policy from Duke University.
Alex Grun
External Relations Manager
The Public Finance Initiative
Alex Grun is a graduate of Northeastern University. While at Northeastern, he worked as a Financial Control Analyst at the TJX Companies and worked on the Government Relations and Corporate Responsibility team at John Hancock. Before joining the Public Finance Initiative, Alex worked as the Field Director for a City Council Race in Brooklyn, NYC, building upon his career working on Presidential and Senate races across the United States. Alex has been with the Public Finance Initiative for over three years. In his time there, he has had the opportunity to support various educational programming activities and technical assistance programs, with the goal of supporting communities looking to center various equity and racial equity principles across different forms of Public Finance. Alex has also supported the development of educational reading material in the form of frameworks and blogs, while also helping in the creation of a Scorecard designed to help communities document and self-assess potential racial equity impacts of a bond issuance.
Peter Hamlin
Program Associate
The Public Finance Initiative
Peter Hamlin is a program associate for the Public Finance Initiative, where he performs research in various areas of public finance including racial equity, debt, federal grant and loan programs, and environmental issues. He comes from an engineering and design background, having obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University and engineering experience in the U.S. and abroad. His professional work has ranged across various technical, design, and research fields. Prior to PFI, Peter worked for various nonprofits including a New York farmers market and a design lab focused on sustainable international development.
