PRESIDENT

Maya-Lin Green is a University of Hawaiʻi, Hilo alum (BA in Communications) and an incoming Graduate student at Georgetown University, for the 2026 Master of Professional Studies in Public Relations and Corporate Communications. In addition to school, Green is completing a multi-year scientific communications fellowship with the USGS led Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center. Green is a mom of two and an avid reader.

VICE PRESIDENT

Kevin Dayton is a Senior Reporter at Honolulu Civil Beat covering the Hawaiʻi Legislature, state politics and state government with a focus on corrections in Hawaiʻi, after nearly three decades at the Honolulu Advertiser and then the Star-Advertiser.

TREASURER

Nancy Cook Lauer has more than 30 years experience as a journalist, winning national and state awards for newspapers in Florida and Hawaiʻi. She publishes a daily state government news aggregate and commentary blog, All Hawaiʻi News. After retiring in December, 2022, as government reporter for West Hawaiʻi Today, Lauer moved to a part-time position as student publications advisor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, where she's helping to grow new journalists on the island. Former president of the Big Island Press Club as well as ongoing vice president of the Hawaiʻi chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Lauer has a Master of Science degree in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, summa cum laude, from Old Dominion University. 

SECRETARY

John Burnett is the senior reporter at the Hawaiʻi Tribune-Herald with 20 years service at the Hilo daily newspaper, 18 of them covering police and courts. An Illinois native, he arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1973 in the U.S. Navy and stayed after his honorable discharge in 1975. Burnett earned his bachelor's degree in English and a teaching certificate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, and a master's degree in education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. He spent 30 years in radio, 12 in Honolulu and 18 in Hilo as a disc jockey, newscaster, talk-show host, program director and sports play-by-play announcer. He is the former voice of UH-Hilo Vulcans athletics and the Hilo Stars of the defunct Hawaiʻi Winter Baseball league. He also taught English for six years in the Hawaiʻi public schools system at Hilo and Waiakea high schools before being hired at the Tribune-Herald in 2006. 

PAST PRESIDENT / DIRECTOR

Tiffany Edwards Hunt is a middle school social studies teacher and a "Greenwaves Gazette" adviser at Kea'au Middle School. Prior to teaching and advising full-time, Hunt worked as an investigative reporter, freelance writer and publisher of Big Island Chronicle. She has been a member of BIPC since 2001.

PAST TREASURER / DIRECTOR

Robert Duerr is an award winning writer, film maker. Award winning films for NASA, The Department of the Treasury, World Healing in Hawaiʻi and top music entertainers including AC/DC. Member of Outdoor Writers of America Association and has written for Surfing, Paddling, Cousteau Society, Outdoor Life. Columnist for Hawaiʻi Fishing News. Throughout his career he has volunteered with many Hawaiʻi community groups including independent schools.

DIRECTOR

Patsy Y. Iwasaki, PhD. is a professor of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. She teaches the introductory and advanced media writing courses, as well as rhetoric, multicultural literature and professional writing. Her research interests and teaching practices include instructional design and development, migration narratives in graphic novels, documentary film, English studies, diversity, place- and community-based, culturally relevant resources in education, and cross cultural exchange and collaboration. She has conducted extensive research activities, published articles, and given presentations in the United States, Asia and Europe in these areas. 

Iwasaki has also conducted research and developed educational projects about Katsu Goto, a 19th century labor advocate and important figure in the Japan-Hawai‘i immigration, labor and social evolution narrative. She has published a graphic novel Hāmākua Hero: A True Plantation Story and is currently creating and producing a documentary film about Goto. She is active in the community, serving on the boards for several organizations dedicated to diversity, education, the Asian American community and youth. 

She struggles to balance her work, projects, family, snacking on dark chocolate and watching The Mandalorian.

DIRECTOR

Peter Serafin was the editor of Hawaiʻi Island Journal. He worked in Tokyo as a reporter for The Japan Times and Billboard magazine, and has written for numerous other publications both domestically and abroad. He lives on Hawaiʻi Island.

DIRECTOR

Ross Wilson Jr., a graduate of Hilo High School attended University of Hawaiʻi Hilo and graduated University of Hawaii Manoa with a Bachelors Business Administration, Travel Industry Management.

Active in the community, Wilson was the West Hawaiʻi Field Representative for former United States Senator Daniel K. Akaka. He serves in the same capacity for United States Senator Mazie K. Hirono.

He currently serves as the Co-Chair of Ahu’ena Heiau, Inc., Chair of the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee, President, Home Corporation, Hawaiʻi Island Community Development Corporation, Hawaiʻi Community Builders, West Hawaiʻi Housing Foundation, and is a member of Hawaiʻi Community College Chancellor’s Advisory Board.

Wilson is a former Chair of the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce, Kona Family YMCA, Kuakini Exchange Club and University of HawaiʻiHilo Chancellor’s Advisory Committee. He also served as a member of the Kukio Community Fund Advisory Committee, Kona Kai Ola Foundation, Kona Outdoor Circle Foundation and Hawaiʻi Community Foundation’s West Hawaiʻi Fund. Wilson is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Hawaiʻi Community Federal Credit Union, Friends of NELHA, Kealakowaa Heiau, Hawaiʻi Employer Support for the Guard & Reserve, Hawaiʻi Island Food Bank, Hawaii Island United Way, Big Island Visitors Bureau and Na Leo O Hawaiʻi.

Ross Wilson Jr. is the recipient of the 2010 Hawaiʻi Community College Mahalo Award and the 2012 University of HawaiʻiHilo Distinguished Alumni Award.

Ross currently serves as Principal, Current Events, a Strategic Communications Agency.

DIRECTOR

John Atwell is a former CIA Senior Operations Officer. His 23-year career began as an analyst, took him to every continent except Antarctica, and included work in counterintelligence, counterproliferation, counterterrorism, and counternarcotics. He later worked for five years for DHS, retiring from federal service in 2020. He now teaches intelligence and national security courses at Hawaiʻi Community College and authors The Island Intelligencer (a monthly column on intelligence and national security issues in the Hawaiʻi Tribune Herald). Beyond the islands, he periodically works as a contract instructor in the Middle East and is editor of The Weekly Intelligence Notes (a periodical of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers). He regularly gives public talks on espionage issues and media literacy.