MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES: JAN YANEHIRO
Jan Yanehiro helped pioneer the magazine format on television as co-host of “Evening Magazine,” a nightly program in San Francisco that ran for 15 years on KPIX-CBS5. Currently, she is the host of “Aging Well,” a television series on KITV-ABC, Hawaiʻi. Born and raised in Honolulu, Jan is a proud graduate of Farrington High School, Class of ’66! She’s won an Emmy, the Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and is a past recipient of HCCNC’s Kulia I Ka Nuʻu Award. She is the Chair of Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Legacy Board and is on the board of The San Francisco-Osaka Sister City Association.
HAWAIIAN MUSIC ARTIST: FAITH AKO
As the Bay Area’s premier female Award Winning Artist in Traditional and Contemporary Hawaiian music, Faith has graced the Pacific Northwest, West Coast, East Coast, Osaka Japan, and Hawaiʻi with her powerful voice, charismatic personality and passion for Hawaiian music over three decades. Her sultry local tones will whisk you to the islands without ever getting on a plane to the islands. To learn more, visit www.faithakomusic.com. Contact: faith@faithako.com. Photo: Courtesy of Ed Aiona Photography.
OLI: kumu hulA PATRICK MAKUAKĀNE
Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne is the founder and director of Hālau Nā Lei Hulu i ka Wēkiu of San Francisco, California. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Kumu Patrick studied with several of Hawaiʻi’s most revered hula masters: John Keola Lake, Robert Uluwehi Cazimero and Mae Kamāmalu Klein. In 2003, he received the title of Kumu Hula through a traditional ʻūniki ʻailolo ceremony curated by Mrs Klein. While a passionate preserver of traditional hula, his artistry also crafts a provocative treatment of tradition that leaps forward in surprising and meaningful ways. In the past few years, he has been a recipient of the prestigious Hewlett 50 Arts Commission and the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Legacy Grant. In 2022, Kumu Patrick was given a special Lifetime Achievement Kulia i ka Nuʻu Award from the Hawaiʻi Chamber of Commerce of Northern California. He says, “To be recognized by an esteemed organization like HCCNC is humbling and inspiring. He mea waiwai nō.” In 2023, Kumu Patrick was named a MacArthur Fellow, often known as the “genius” award, for blending traditional hula with contemporary music and movements and uplifting Hawaiian culture and history. (https://naleihulu.org/about/kumu-patrick-makuakane)
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: MARY BITTERMAN
Mary G.F. Bitterman is President of The Bernard Osher Foundation, a 47-year-old philanthropic organization headquartered in San Francisco that supports higher education and the arts. Post-secondary scholarships are provided to over 250 institutions nationally, with a recent emphasis on meeting the needs of reentry students. The Foundation supports a national network of lifelong learning institutes for seasoned adults located at 125 colleges and universities from Maine to Hawaiʻi and Alaska; a National Resource Center for Osher Institutes located at Northwestern University provides information to the network on best practices in older adult education. The Foundation also funds integrative health centers at ten universities in the United States and at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Grants for culture and the arts are generally made to select organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and the State of Maine.
Previously, Bitterman was President and CEO of The James Irvine Foundation, an independent grant-making foundation serving Californians, and before that President and CEO of KQED, a significant public media center serving audiences in Northern California and beyond. She has served also as Executive Director of the Hawaiʻi Public Broadcasting Authority (now PBS Hawaiʻi), Director of the Voice of America, Director of the Hawaii State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and Director of the East-West Center’s Institute of Culture and Communication. She has produced several documentaries for public television and has written on telecommunications development and the role of media in developing societies.
A former Chair of the Boards of the East-West Center, Kuakini Health System, America’s Public Television Stations, Commonwealth Club of California, PBS, and the PBS Foundation and former Lead Independent Director of Bank of Hawaiʻi, Bitterman currently serves as a director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute; The Bernard Osher Foundation; Commonwealth Club of California; Hawaiʻi Community Foundation; and the PBS Foundation. She is also an Advisory Council member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Public Policy Institute of California, and Pacific Forum. She has been a member of the Advisory Council for Project Dana, an interfaith volunteer caregiving program for the frail elderly and disabled in Hawaiʻi since its founding in 1989.
Bitterman is an Honorary Member of the National Presswomen’s Federation and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Bitterman received her B.A. from Santa Clara University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Modern European History from Bryn Mawr College. She holds honorary degrees from Dominican University of California, Santa Clara University, and the University of Richmond.
