Officers:

President: Michael Kern, CEM

Michael Kern retired from FEMA’s Pacific Area Office after 15 years serving as the Voluntary Agency Liaison and then Preparedness Specialist for the Pacific Islands.  He has deployed to more than 40 disasters and logged over 1,100 days on FEMA travel.  He is a founding member of EMPHI and has previously served as vice president and director.

Vice President: Gail Higashi-Takehara

Served EMP-HI since 2013 a President, Treasurer, and Board Member, contributing to the website, elections, membership programs, and Neighbor Island outreach. EM Professional with over 25 years of experience across non-profit, State and Federal agencies, emphasizes the value of building trust and mutual understanding before and incident occurs, and values collaboration across agencies. 

Past President: Mary Ann Swendsen, CEM

Mary Ann Swendsen works in the All-Domain Training Division for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command integrating emerging technologies (i.e., AI/ML, space, cyber)  to increase capabilities in a live, virtual and constructive training environments in support of joint large scale exercises. She served in the U.S. Coast Guard for over 25 years and has extensive experience in Incident Command System (ICS), response operations, and is a certified ICS instructor. She is a founding member of EMPHI.  

Secretary: James “Jay” Price III

Jay currently serves as the senior emergency management planner for Command Navy Region Hawaii where he also serves as a member of the Region Operations Center Crisis Action Team.  Jay has served for 37 years in the DoD as a 1st Responder, Incident Commander, Emergency Operations, Security Operations, Emergency Operations Center leader, instructor, trainer, and evaluator, bringing his knowledge, expertise, and passion to the team. 

Treasurer: Elvin Arroyo

Elvin Arroyo currently serves as the Emergency Management (EM) Program Manager for Tripler Army Medical Center. He oversees the medical center’s emergency preparedness, prevention, mitigation, response to, and recovery from natural and manmade disasters. In addition, he coordinates, delivers, and oversees all EM training and exercises for the medical center and subordinate organizations.

Directors:

Director for Education: Robert (Bob) Harter

A 30-year U.S. Army veteran with a variety of experience in planning, preparedness, exercise, and disaster/humanitarian relief. He has worked for the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Emergency Management since 2011, where he serves as an Emergency Management Staff Officer. He is also a founding member of EMP-HI and an Active American Red Cross volunteer.

Director for Professional Development: Hannah Ritz, AEM

Hannah Ritz is currently an Emergency Management Specialist for ReadyZoneHQ, a Hawaii-based consulting firm whose mission is to assist organizations to become better prepared to respond to and recover from disasters. Hannah is a member of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and active in the IAEM Children and Disaster Caucus. Hannah has also supported mitigation operations as a Greyshirt volunteer with Team Rubicon.

Director for Communications: James Faumuina

James is a Ph.D. student in the Global Leadership program at Troy University, focusing on the resilience of insular communities and vulnerable populations. He serves as Assistant Director at the Hawaii Pacific Advisory Group (HPAG), addressing gaps revealed by the Maui wildfire. A retired Air National Guard medical service corps officer, he commanded the Detachment 1, Medical CBRNE All-Hazards Units, participating in numerous National Guard disaster response efforts. 

Director for Membership:  Jon Shear, CEM

Jon has lived in Hawaii since 2010, and is a founding member, and a past‐president of the Emergency Management Professionals of Hawaii with over 30 years of experience in emergency management (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonshear/).  He is also an active member of IAEM,  serving in leadership positions in the Emerging Technology Caucus, on the conference committee, and as current Region 9 President.  Jon is interested in encouraging emergency management professionals in Hawaii to join EMP-HI, and hopefully to pursue their AEM/CEM to support the profession.