Executive Team
President
Beth Savitt is the president of the Savitt Family Foundation, which consistently funds educational programs supporting the physical and mental health of our community. Sustainability is the key to a resilient future for Maui, and food security is the cornerstone for solutions. Beth sits on the boards of Maui Tomorrow, Sustainable Hawaiian Agriculture for the Keiki and the ʻĀina, Sustainable Action Fund for the Environment, and the Maui Cannabis Guild. She is a supporter of the Farm Apprenticeship Mentoring Program, Hai’ku Elementary School, and the Maui Humane Society. Beth has a graduate degree is in Community Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in Evaluation Research and Process Evaluation. She is a former college professor in psychology at Cal State Northridge, and she also had a long career in pre-K-12th grade curricula and program development.
Treasurer
Kutira Décosterd is a founding member of Food Security Hawaii. She is an environmentalist, author, entrepreneur, and mentor who has committed her life to sustainability and personal empowerment through Embodied Spirituality. She is co-founder and owner of the Kahua Hawaiian Institute, LLC est.1985, which has cultivated a bridge between ancient traditions and cutting edge science. Kutira has been developing Maui Eco Retreat for over three decades as an off-grid, sustainable model for Eco-Tourism, and has been passionately involved with green building and sustainability across America and Asia. She is the owner of the Kahua O’Malio Bamboo Farm, LLC est. 1988 and manages an innovative agroforestry garden providing a bounty of organic, native staple foods. Being one of the first WWOOFing hosts in the early 90’s, she has now hosted over 1000 volunteers and students as she continues to share teachings about permaculture and tropical farming to support grower education. She has dedicated her mission to bring food security and self-sufficiency to the islands of Hawaii.
Secretary
Niyaso Carter's very first job was as an apprentice on a bio-dynamic farm at age 17 in Germany in 1977. She went on to manage a farm in central Oregon in her twenties where she oversaw the growing of food for a community of 1000 people, all organic. The community had dairy cows, beef cattle, chickens and a large vegetable farm with all varieties of vegetables and herbs. For the last 20 years she has been growing fruit trees and other food trees and vegetables on her own 3 acres in Huelo on the North Shore of Maui, where she has gathered a lot of experience in growing and showing her young work-traders how to farm. Her current work as a life coach, relationship & trauma resolution counselor and spiritual mentor allows her be supportive to people in many areas.
Board of Directors
Kutira Décosterd is a founding member of Food Security Hawaii. She is an environmentalist, author, entrepreneur, and mentor who has committed her life to sustainability and personal empowerment through Embodied Spirituality. She is co-founder and owner of the Kahua Hawaiian Institute, LLC est.1985, which has cultivated a bridge between ancient traditions and cutting edge science. Kutira has been developing Maui Eco Retreat for over three decades as an off-grid, sustainable model for Eco-Tourism, and has been passionately involved with green building and sustainability across America and Asia. She is the owner of the Kahua O’Malio Bamboo Farm, LLC est. 1988 and manages an innovative agroforestry garden providing a bounty of organic, native staple foods. Being one of the first WWOOFing hosts in the early 90’s, she has now hosted over 1000 volunteers and students as she continues to share teachings about permaculture and tropical farming to support grower education. She has dedicated her mission to bring food security and self-sufficiency to the islands of Hawaii.
Project Managers
`Ohana Gardens
Robin Leimomi Proctor is an entrepreneur. For 20 years she led businesses in the luxury wedding industry in Aspen, CO these included a networking and marketing company and professional photography. In 2018 she founded Weedsteam Inc. In 2020 she founded Weedsteam Hawai’i - Organic Weed Control. Robin believes in being the change we want to see in the world. She believes passionately that we can all make a positive difference with our own actions and helping others. She came home to Maui with her immediate family to help reduce pesticides, create food security, create green jobs and business opportunities.
Grants, MFTTN Program Partnership
Dr. Robinson has a 43-year history as an organizational development consultant and an educational/curriculum specialist in her business Courageous Crossings. Her company has facilitated stakeholder and focus groups on Maui in a variety of community-wide initiatives related to sustainability. Robinson’s doctorate is in International Adult Education and Training with a specialty in working with adults across cultures. In 2012, she founded an Axis Deer Harvesting Cooperative on Maui Island and served on the County’s Axis Deer Working Group. As Co-creator of the Farm Apprentice Mentoring Program (FAM), Phyllis has worked closely with the County of Maui, the University of Hawaii Maui College and a wide network of community organizations in bringing farmer education to the forefront of the agenda for the County and for the State of Hawaii.
Advisors
Char O’Brien is the Founder and currently the Treasurer of Food Security Hawaii, a 501(c)3 nonprofit on Maui. Char holds a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy with high honors from Michigan State University, with an additional 3 years of agricultural technical training in Denmark, Norway and Austria. She farmed organically for 23 years - specializing in feed crops and breeding high-genetic dairy cattle and small-scale poultry. Char was COO and VP of Innovation for Bamboo Technologies, Inc. a Maui company with a factory in Vietnam. She played a vital role in acquiring the ICC certification of bamboo as a building material and initiating the development of bamboo plywood in China. In 2008 Char founded Carbon Drawdown Solutions and committed to the Regenerative Agricultural Movement.
Susan Teton Campbell is an author, specialty chef, nutritionist and advocate for sustainable food systems. After a varied business career, she began her advocacy work with John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, while authoring the Healthy School Lunch Action Guide and pioneering an award winning national program. After years of studying with notable health professionals, and creating menu plans for large resorts and celebrities, Susan produced the Chef Teton brand and created Essential Cuisine, a culinary practice that integrates the health of the body, mind, soul and Earth. The Chef Teton brand includes eight online cooking courses that stream world wide on several platforms with an international blog. Her most recent book, Eating As A Spiritual Practice – was published in June 2017. Susan's 16-year advocacy work on Maui centers on sustainable food systems. She is a founding member of Food Security Hawaii (previously named Bio Bamboo) and held BOD positions for the following organizations/companies: Hawaii Farmers Union, Maui Tomorrow, Maui Food Technology Center, and Aina First.
Aram Armstrong serves as a designer and technologist for Food Security Hawaii’s `Ohana Gardens project. He is the founder of Generative Ventures Hawaii and is passionate about resilient communities and systems practice. Aram is visiting faculty for the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, he was design sprint facilitator at Starbucks, an innovation coach for the Fung Group, and a senior interaction designer and project lead at IDEO. Aram holds a Master's in Interaction Design from the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (Italy) and a BFA in Interactive Media from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Aram grew up on Maui (MHS ℅ ‘97) riding the sidewalks and shorebreaks of South Maui and is very happy to be home.
Ferananda Ibarra has a backgrounders in collective intelligence, organizational development, and entrepreneurship focused on decentralized systems that solve our major global challenges. Specifically, her focus is on the development of new systems of economics and governance that intrinsically incentivize life-enhancing behaviors at all levels of agency, supporting distributed and conscious participation in our global evolution. She is co-founder of Holo and Holochain where she contributed to an ICO raising $25M. She currently serves ad Director of The Commons Engine, an incubator for currency design a decentralized tech for commons-oriented projects, and JustOne Organics where she in in charge of culture and technology. She is launching The Coventina Foundation to bring funds for the emergent Holochain Ecosystem.
Rene Ruch is a Swiss native who has lived on Maui for 30 years. He is an accountant and Enrolled Agent with the IRS, and has many years experience in business consulting, specializing in managing the financial and organization needs and details for local businesses and nonprofits. Rene founded the Maui recycling service in 1992, and is joining the Food Security Hawaii advisory team to bring his expertise and network to local food solutions at this critical time for Maui.Rene will be serving as Food Security Hawaii’s chief financial advisor.