LEADERSHIP

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Artist-Driven Impact and Native Values

HAWAI‘I NONLINEAR is directed by creative values that respect the past, present, and future, striving for powerful outcomes that foster a culture of care, collaboration, and clear boundaries. We ourselves are Native and Local stakeholders in Hawai‘i’s built environment. As creators, conveners, and collaborative partners, we underscore the importance of ‘āina in the built environment because organizational research around Hawai‘i indicates that ‘āina is key to wellbeing at the personal, familial, and community scale.

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Sean Connelly Founding Artist / Director (2021 - )
Dr. Sean Connelly is a Hawai‘i artist, architect, and educator whose work in sculpture, film, design, and cartography addresses pressing issues of ecology and setteler colonialism at the intersections of Native intellect and futures. Sean is founder and director of After Oceanic Built Environments Lab.

Blaine Namahana Tolentino President (2025 - )
Blaine Namahana Tolentino lives and works in Hilo (Hawai'i) and Honolulu (O'ahu). At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, she works as an editor, curator, and translator. At Awaiaulu, she has worked as a managing editor, indexer, and archival researcher. Since 2020, she has been co-editor of the The Hawaiian Journal of History.

Puanani ConnellySecretary (2021 - )
Puanani Connelly is a program coordinator at KUA: Kuaʻaina Ulu ʻAuamo, an organization that promotes grassroots projects, and serves on the State advisory council for the Kaulunani Urban & Community Forestry Program.

Danielle Ulmann
Treasurer (2022 - )
Danielle Ulmann is vice president of surety at Atlas Insurance Agency and a Committee Chair and immediate past President of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Hawai‘i Chapter.

Kaili Chun
Arts and Culture Advisory
Kaili Chun is an internationally recognized and award-winning Kanaka Maoli artist known for her large-scale sculptural that uses narratives, symbols and objects that address the impact of historical events on the present day.

Albert Refiti
Arts and Culture Advisory
Leali’ifano Dr Albert Refiti is a leading scholar of Pacific spatial design and architecture. His research examines vā (space) and wā (time) to understand Oceanic buildings, artefacts, and social systems, linking Indigenous knowledge, material culture, and contemporary architectural practice across the Pacific.

James Miller
Academic Advisory
Dr. James Miller is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Design within Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research examines how Indigenous design knowledge informs the creation of Indigenous futures, integrating cultural frameworks, spatial practice, and critical design methodologies.

Kelema Moses
Academic Advisory
Dr. Kelema Moses is an art historian and professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego, with expertise in race, indigeneity, colonialism, and U.S. empire in the Pacific, and also serves as a board member of the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative.

Emeritus (Mahalo!)
Dominic Leong, Co-Founder (2021-2022)
Keoni Kuoha, Advisory (2023-2025)