PANELISTS

Debbie Amaral, Director of Early Childhood Services, Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc.

Debbi attended Maui Community College, graduating with an Associates of Sciences degree in Human Services with emphasis in Early Childhood. She taught at private preschools in central Maui for ten years prior to being employed with Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc. (MEO). She began her career with Head Start in June 1996 as the Education/Disability Specialist. In 2001, she was promoted to Assistant Director and to her current position in November 2005. Debbi completed the Head Start Johnson & Johnson Management Fellows Program in 2008. Early Childhood programs provided by MEO include Head Start, Kahi Kamali’i Infant/Toddler program, and the 'Ohana Strengthening program.

Dana Apo

Dana graduated with her bachelor’s degree in social work in 1995 and her master’s degree in social work in 1996. While going to school, Dana worked in a variety of settings that included transitional homes for mentally ill, transitional housing for women exiting prison, domestic violence shelters, therapeutic homes for children, etc. She began her full time employment in the area of foster care with Casey Family Programs in 1996 as a Family Developer and later as a case manager with Foster Family Programs. With Family Programs Hawaii, she created and designed a respite program for families in foster care, guardianship, and adoption. Currently she facilitates a support group for foster, guardianship, and adoptive families in the Waianae area, is a member of the Hawai'i Children’s Trust Fund Advisory Committee, and volunteers with Prevent Child Abuse Hawai'i.

Sonja Evensen, Evaluation Specialist, Pacific Resources for Education and Learning

Sonja works as both an internal and external evaluator at Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). She has helped non-profits and educational programs throughout the Pacific region and the Hawaiian Islands build their evaluation capacity. She assists organizations in becoming more self-sufficient in logic modeling, outcomes planning, data collection, and data-driven decision making. Her goals include increasing their understanding of how evaluation can be a useful tool and helping them be better evaluation consumers.

Sonja has master’s degrees in Social Pedagogy (University of Oslo, Norway) and in Public Health (UH Mānoa) and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Evaluation (Claremont Graduate University). She was a member of the Evaluation Hui and a founding member of the H-PEA.

Jennifer Murphy, Program Officer, Hawai'i Community Foundation

Jennifer is a Program officer at the Hawai'i Community Foundation. Her work includes the Hawai'i Children's Trust Fund and the Youth Matters and the Arts in the Schools programs. Jennifer has worked in the field of family strengthening for over a decade and has implemented a variety of capacity building programs with grantee cohorts. She holds an MPA and a BA from the University of Hawai'i. Jennifer lives in Aiea, Hawai'i with her son and husband.

Carole Vida, Head Start Male Involvement Specialist and 'Ohana Strengthening Facilitator, Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc.

Carole began her career with Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc. (MEO) Head Start in 2002. Her work with families focused on preventing substance abuse and smoking cessation. In 2004, Carole attended a National Head Start Institute on Father Involvement. Her role as Male Involvement Specialist facilitates male participation activities for Head Start parents and adults attached to enrolled children. Carole has years of experience and professional development focused on cultural sensitivity, protective factors for family strengthening, and substance and child abuse prevention. She is facilitator for the MEO 'Ohana Strengthening program, working with incarcerated women at Maui Community Correctional Center (MCCC) and their families.