Leadership

Later, she served as vice president of the Kapi‘olani Health Foundation. She currently serves on the boards of the American Red Cross – Hawai‘i State Chapter, the Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and Enterprise Honolulu, an economic development organization. Kitty is an active partner in IPREX (she has served on its 12-member Executive Committee), a global partnership of independent communications firms, of which Communications Pacific is the Hawai‘i affiliate. She is a past president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, Hawai‘i’s oldest and largest Rotary club; and she served two terms on the board of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai‘i. Among the other organizations on whose boards she has served are HiBEAM (Hawai‘i Business Entrepreneur and Acceleration Mentors), Young CEOs, and the Hawai‘i Justice Foundation.

Kitty served five years on the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents, including two years as vice chair and two years as chair. She has also served as an appointee on Hawai‘i’s Elections Review Task Force and the Elections Appointment and Review Panel (EARP).

In addition to having been honored as “Businesswoman of the Year,” Kitty has also been honored as one of Hawai‘i’s women leaders by the YWCA of Oahu. Junior Achievement of Hawai‘i named her to the Hawai‘i Business Hall of Fame. The Hawai‘i Chapter of the March of Dimes honored her with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Award for Distinguished Community Service, and the Pacific Gateway Center presented her its Community Building Award. The American Red Cross – Hawai‘i State Chapter awarded her its Chairman’s Cup. The Boy Scouts of America and its Aloha Chapter honored her with the Silver Beaver Award for extraordinary volunteer service.

Kitty has received numerous awards for her work from the Hawai‘i chapters of both the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and PRSA Hawai‘i honored her as Gregg W. Perry Public Relations Professional of the Year (2003). She is a graduate of the University of Hawai‘i, with a degree in English.

Christina and the community building practice she nurtured have worked with both government and private-sector clients on a variety of construction and development projects, as well as cultural issues, that require gaining the trust of and communicating intensively with communities throughout the state. They have compiled an impressive record of building win-win civic, cultural, environmental and economic outcomes on the ground common to groups that often have remarkably differing missions.

Christina is the recipient of many community awards, including the Ihe Award, presented by the Hawai‘i Army Museum Society in recognition of her distinguished service as civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army representing the State of Hawai‘i. In this capacity, she served from 1999 through 2007 – four terms – as liaison between the Secretary of the Army and Hawai‘i’s civilian community. In 2008, Christina was named civilian aide emeritus. The Federal Executive Board of Honolulu has also honored her with its Citizen of the Year Award, and the Mediation Center of the Pacific has presented her with its Natural Collaborative Leader Award.

Before joining Communications Pacific, Christina headed the Office of Waikīkī Development. Earlier, she was president of the Waikīkī Improvement Association, where she implemented planning and improvement projects for Waikīkī, the state’s largest visitor destination, with city, state and federal agencies, residents, businesses, landowners, hotels, labor unions, professional societies and community groups. She has handled projects dealing with public safety and security issues, as well as land-use, cultural and environment issues. She served as chair of the Transportation Commission of the City and County of Honolulu from 1997 to 2002.

A graduate of Loyola University (Chicago), Christina has lived, traveled and studied in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South America.

Working to assist clients whose projects lie at the point, often at the grass roots, where government, community and business come together, Cindy and her colleagues have compiled an enviable record of building consensus among people and organizations that often have remarkably differing missions.

Cindy came to CommPac after five years as a legislative aide at the Honolulu City Council, where she developed considerable experience in strategic legislative and grass-roots outreach. During her time there, Cindy helped develop legislative strategy and worked closely with city and state agencies, neighborhood boards, the Legislature, the media and constituents. Cindy also served for a year as outreach coordinator for the City and County of Honolulu’s Primary Corridor Transportation Project, providing information about the project to target groups and stakeholders.

Cindy came to Hawai‘i in 1996 from Washington, D.C., where she was assistant director of the Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS). There, among her numerous other activities, she lobbied Congress and federal agencies on behalf of the group’s 60 member organizations and developed and conducted grass-roots political advocacy workshops at state, regional and national conferences.

With both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English, Cindy began her career as a high school and then a college-level English instructor. She acquired her first teaching experience – English and science – at a high school and teacher training college in Kenya.