Eleonor is a veteran math teacher, an avid surfer, and beach volleyball player.  An educator at heart, but always a person with diverse life passions, a meaningful mathematics curriculum has always driven her professional life.  Before it was comfortable, Eleonor advocated inquiry-based, place-based, culture-based learning for her haumāna but also for herself as the kumu.  When she was in the classroom full time, Eleonor made every attempt to make the garden her classroom. 

As HISGN’s Program Director, Eleonor is thrilled to continue her work in Education as she helps the school garden movement grow at all of the kula on Hawaiʻi Island.  She looks forward to stepping outside of her own classroom in order to help current kumu attain resources and network with key people so that they too, can develop equally meaningful learning experiences for their haumāna by way of a school māla.

Holly became involved with Māla`ai when her son was a student at Waimea Middle School. Since then, she has been a volunteer, a board member, a part time assistant, and has been our full time Lead Garden Educator since 2012. Holly's major at U.C. Santa Cruz was biology. While there she worked on several field research projects. After completing her course work she became the head dolphin trainer at Long Marine Lab under the direction of professor Ken Norris. After that project ended, Holly came to Hawaiʻi to study wild populations of spinner dolphins with the Kula Nai'a research team. Caring for the land has also been a strong part of her education and interests. "What we do on the land has an impact on the oceans, everything is connected." Holly decided to dedicate the rest of her career to teaching students about gardening. Holly works hard to ensure that all her classes reinforce classroom lessons, as well as teach health and wellness and care for the land. She feels strongly that by instilling a love for the 'aina students will be empowered to create a healthy future for themselves and their community.