Working with Mary to develop our mission and vision for our organization was a smooth and gratifying experience. Mary was great at really listening to us and articulating everything that was stuck in our minds. It was important to us to work with someone who had a good understanding of cultural components. Mary was able to understand our values and ideas through a cultural lens. She brought together beautifully everything we were about and turned it into a valuable informational deck for our future use. We are very happy with all of our deliverables through this project and now have the foundation we need to move forward with our dreams of Laupaʻi Ke Ola! Mahalo!!
Kamuela Meheula & Keahi Tomas | Co-Founders | Laupaʻi Ke Ola
Mary facilitated five gatherings in Year 1 of our collective impact cohort. During this time, she was critical in laying a foundation for the cohort’s work in Years 2-3. In the planning stage of each gathering, Mary's work on the agenda, presentation, and a facilitation plan helped to synthesize the vision of the core planning team while simultaneously upholding the needs of cohort members. During the gatherings, Mary facilitated in a manner that created a safe, respectful, and equity-conscious space that encouraged individual participation, clarified communications, and built trust. Recent stakeholder interviews reenforce the value that Mary brought to the cohort, noting her contribution to this past year’s success.
Keoni Kuoha | Program Director | Hawai'i Community Foundation
Building a two-day Board of Directors retreat is no small feat. It requires tremendous planning and preparation to ensure a smooth, meaningful, and productive process. From initial introductions to development and implementation, Mary’s approach (filled with grace, patience, and aloha) directly aligned with who we are as an organization, what we do in the community, and our vision for the future. We are forever grateful for her expertise and guidance throughout the process and eagerly anticipate the opportunity to work with her again. Mary's professionalism, cultural sensitivity, and unwavering dedication made our retreat a truly valuable experience, and we can't thank her enough for her contributions.
Kukunaokalā Yoshimoto | Executive Director | Blueprint for Change
Mary is a deeply insightful practitioner in this space. She understands Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the nuance it takes to move DEI work forward in the organizational landscape, particularly in Hawaiʻi. As a facilitator, she thinks through issues of access, empowering those who historically have not had a voice, and providing ways for stakeholders to feel safe and heard. Her understanding of Hawaiʻi’s context while having lived experience working in other places gives her a unique perspective in her roles as a consultant, trainer, evaluator, and practitioner. I thoroughly recommend Mary as a strategic thought partner and guide.
Ku‘ulani Keohokalole, Owner & Principal Consultant | People Strategies Hawai‘i
Mary facilitated our Strategic Planning session in 2022. Our nonprofit, volunteer board is a living organism that changes members annually, proving it challenging to bring together everyone's thoughts, ideas, and concerns. From the beginning, Mary invited everyone to share personal motivations and values, which helped us get to know each other and build trust. Mary encouraged this new habit throughout the one-day session, and we were able to develop a collective vision and path that allowed everyone's voice to be heard. One ability that Mary has amazed me; many times our thoughts and ideas were simply gibberish, unpolished, or flying through the air, but Mary managed to make them concise and turn them into an actionable plan. It brought our whole team to the same page.
Slavica Hansbrough | President | ATD Hawai'i Chapter
Mary's skills and services enabled us to evaluate and create a vision for how to engage our alumni community that we're applying to this day. She assessed what our audience wanted through organizing multiple focus groups, conducted an extremely helpful landscape analysis of peer organizations, and interviewed peer organizations on their alumni strategies. When it was clear that best practices didn't exist, she suggested the elements of a successful alumni engagement strategy that would meet our needs, and built a roadmap for how to develop it. She was candid about surfacing opportunities where we could improve, and different stakeholders shared that they felt Mary respected their time and perspective. Mary is a sharp thinker and a fast worker who I recommend to any organization looking to get actionable results.
Megan Shea, Chief of Programs and Strategic Partnerships | Net Impact
Mary helped our organization navigate a challenging year with grace, humor, flexibility, and a keen attention to detail. As an organization of volunteers, we needed help engaging our community in sensitive conversations about the future of our work and synthesizing their voices into a strategic direction. Mary held these conversations with respect, sensitivity, and discretion, and wove them into an amazing final product. She was particularly skilled at finding the best way to carry out the work and effectively 'managing up' in pursuit of our overall vision. We'll always be grateful for everything she's done for us and would recommend her highly to anyone.
Martin Bourqui, Board of Directors | Responsible Endowments Coalition
I have worked with Mary on an extensive statewide report project and have been happy to have her as one the technical assistance providers in carrying out the statewide Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations Grants Technical Assistance Services Program. On both projects, Mary was ready to jump in and roll up her sleeves. Her contributions to the report project regarding contracting and other issues at the nexus of the government and nonprofit relationship were very valuable. She was also excellent at providing meaningful insights and input for nonprofits aiming to increase their success in the federal grants process. She remained professional throughout and delivered an excellent product each time.
Melissa Unemori Hampe, Partner | Skog Rasmussen