Kimiko LaHaela Walter Joins the Team

We are pleased to welcome Kimiko LaHaela Walter to the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi! Kimiko’s role will focus on grassroots organizing efforts across the Hawaiian Islands. Her goals align with the chapter’s mission to empower people to take action to stop climate change and ensure a resilient and just future for all of Hawaiʻi.Kimiko joins us from the Hawaiʻi Center for Food Safety, where she worked on food sustainability issues as their Program Associate and Pollinator Program Coordinator. During her time there, she developed an urgent need to assist communities in their fight for food and water security throughout the Islands. She holds a BSc in Environmental Science and Sustainable Resource Management from the University of Washington, Seattle and an International MSc in Forest Ecology and Management from the University of Freiburg, Germany. Despite her background in research science, her passion is working with people and she is dedicated to helping facilitate direct grassroots action in order to create positive and rapid change in society and in policy, especially to mitigate the effects of climate change.Kimiko is excited to continue her work with local communities by addressing and helping to solve the environmental and social justice issues that are important to them. She is committed to protecting Hawaiʻi’s unique environment and is keen to utilize her deep passion for people and nature to encourage others to organize, take action, and ultimately see a holistically vibrant and healthy Hawaiʻi come to fruition. In this way, she hopes to leave a better world for her young daughter and all future generations to come. She lives in the Moʻiliʻili area of Honolulu with her family and enjoys yoga, hiking, cooking healthy food and all things ocean-friendly.