Vibrant Hawaii founder Janice Ikeda joins Hawaii Community Foundation board
Janice Ikeda’s new seat on Hawaii Community Foundation’s board puts a Hawaii Island nonprofit leader inside one of the state’s biggest funding decisions.
Hawaii Island’s disaster recovery, food security and community investment priorities now have a direct voice on one of Hawaii’s most powerful philanthropic boards. Janice Ikeda, founder and chief executive officer of Vibrant Hawaii, has joined the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Board of Governors, a role that became effective March 30 and was announced June 9.
Ikeda will serve on the board’s External Engagement Committee, adding a Hawaii Island-based leader to a group that helps set policy, organization-wide priorities and program strategies while overseeing financial stewardship and operations. Hawaii Community Foundation said the current board’s work builds on more than 110 years of history and that the foundation stewards more than 1,160 funds, including more than 300 scholarship funds.
The appointment matters on the Big Island because Ikeda has spent years building the kind of local infrastructure that becomes essential when floods, fires, power outages or economic shocks hit rural communities. She founded Vibrant Hawaii in 2018 and has led the expansion of resilience hubs on Hawaii Island and Oahu that support community emergency action plans, governance development, resource coordination and training in rural and coastal areas.
Vibrant Hawaii said its network now includes partners from every district of Hawaii Island, among them Hawaiian Acres Hub, Honokaa Resilience Hub, Kaū Hana Laulima, Kohala Resilience Hub, Kona Resilience Hub, Nāālehu Resilience Hub, Pāhoa Resilience Hub and Waimea Resilience Hub. The organization also said it has held more than 200 listening sessions and convened more than 1,400 community contributors, giving Ikeda a record of translating local concerns into programs such as Kaukau 4 Keiki, Social Service Navigators, Micro-Investments, OAKA Youth Leadership and Hui Hanai Ka Moku.
Before launching Vibrant Hawaii, Ikeda worked as director of operations for Hope Services Hawaii, disaster recovery coordinator for Hawaii County and community advancement and resource development director for Hawaii Island United Way. Hawaii Community Foundation said she began her nonprofit career at Aha Pūnana Leo, supporting Hawaiian language revitalization through strategic planning, fundraising and program development, and that she brings more than two decades of experience in community development, nonprofit leadership and cross-sector collaboration.
The board role also gives Hawaii Island a stronger voice as the foundation reactivated its Hawaii Resilience Fund to support nonprofits facing funding cuts. With board chair Tamar Chotzen Goodfellow in place since January 1, 2026, and Peter Ho now serving as vice chair after chairing the board since 2019, Ikeda’s appointment places a community organizer with deep disaster-response and neighborhood-network experience inside the room where major statewide grants and recovery priorities are shaped.
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