R. Keli’i Abordo is HIV Program Manager at Hawai’i Health & Harm Reduction Center (HHHRC). Keli’i entered the HIV services field in 2005, starting in the community doing outreach, education, and testing in our remote neighborhoods. Keli’i transitioned into care services by securing the Native Hawaiian HIV Medical Case Management position. While in case management, Keli’i was involved in co-facilitating our Native Hawaiian program for HIV+ individuals, Ke Ola Pono, to provide care without walls, the implementation and management of HHHRC’s 340B HIV program, and assisted with the establishment of HHHRC’s STD 340B program. Now as a manager, Keli’i provides support for his frontline and extended team of Medical Case Managers, Case Mangement Assistants, and Sexual Health and Insurance Navigators.

Highlighted Work:

• HHHRC Policy Statements: Black Lives Matter, Racism & Public Health, Maunakea (Indigenous Rights), and Sex Work

Kekoaopololū (Kekoa) Kealoha is the Ryan White Administrative Manager at the Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center. Kekoa has worked in HIV care and prevention for over 8 years in several capacities. With his background in medical case management, Kekoa is passionate about delivering services equitably and creating opportunities for Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) in the provision of Ryan White services. Kekoa has served in local, statewide, and national cohorts and committees to advance health care opportunities for all Hawaiʻi residents. He has also presented at many statewide and national conferences to share best practices and solutions, meaningfully elevating kanaka maoli voices.

Website: Hawai’i Health & Harm Reduction Center

Nikos Leverenz, JD, serves as the Grants & Advancement Manager at Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center. Born and raised in Honolulu, he returned to Hawaiʻi in 2017 after 25 years in California, where he attended Occidental College and McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He worked around the policymaking process in Sacramento as an advocate, legislative staffer, and consultant. He served on the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct, Dual-Use Cannabis Task Force, and Breakthrough Therapies Task Force. He has been quoted widely in print and broadcast media, with most recent op-eds were featured in Honolulu Civil Beat.

Highlighted Work:

• Op-Ed: Make Government Reform a Long-Term Commitment
• Op-Ed: End Cannabis Prohibition to Benefit Hawaii’s Underserved Communities

Maddalynn Sesepasara is Kua’ana Project Manager at Hawai’i Health & Harm Reduction Center (HHHRC) and a pillar of the transgender community in Hawaii. Through her inspiration and leadership, she has touched many lives by being the guiding light for transmen and transwomen to live their authentic truths. As a showgirl and Entertainer, Maddalynn naturally became a leading voice in the LGBTQIA+ community and used her platform to advocate transgender equality. Within the community she continues to be a role model and mentor for local transgender youths in Hawaii, supporting their growth and helping them navigate life, health, and relationships while making safe choices. In addition to her processional accomplishments, Maddie is connected to her Samoan heritage and family.

The Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center (HHHRC) serves Hawai’i communities by reducing the harm and fighting the stigma of HIV, hepatitis, homelessness, substance use, mental illness, and poverty in our community. Its efforts focus on those disproportionately affected by social determinants of health, including but not limited to: people living with and/or affected by HIV, hepatitis, substance use, and the transgender, LGBQ and the Native Hawaiian communities. The HHHRC fosters health, wellness, and systemic change in Hawai’i and the Pacific through care services, advocacy, training, prevention, education, and capacity building.

Website: https://www.hhhrc.org/

The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity (the Institute or IHJE) aims to eliminate disparities caused by systemic oppression and to improve individual and community health and well-being through systems change and deep community partnership. As part of these core goals, IHJE created a panel of content experts, community advocates, and organizations called the Anti-Racism Consortium. Each consortium member has a history of working to:

• develop and advocate for anti-racist health policy;
• address the root causes of health inequities; and
• develop programs and interventions that address multiple levels of medical racism, structural racism in health and the health care system.

In the Critical Futures podcast series, Consortium members describe their work and perspectives related to anti-racist health policy as well as structural racism in the healthcare system. These interviews are also conducted with a community partner that the members have worked alongside — with the goal of highlighting how to deeply work with community in a way that shares power and that moves us all towards liberation.