Alice Malepeai Silbanuz is OHA’s Communications Director (Ka Pou Kihi Lono). She was appointed in November 2021. Alice previously served as OHA’s Interim Community Engagement Director and also served as OHA’s Digital and Print Media Manager for four years.
The Communications Director is a newly created position through OHA’s 2021 reorganization. Under the new structure, Alice reports directly to the CEO. Alice oversees OHA’s Communications program and six Beneficiary Service Centers located on Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, West Hawaiʻi (Kailua-Kona) and East Hawaiʻi (Hilo). She works closely with OHA leadership to develop organizational messaging, strategic communications campaigns, and serves as the agency’s media relations lead.
Alice has 20 years of professional communications experience in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region in both government and nonprofit sectors. She started at OHA in 2011. Over the course of her career of service at OHA, she has been responsible for overseeing numerous OHA communications campaigns, and for guiding the production of the organization’s acclaimed video stories, its monthly Hawaiian community newspaper Ka Wai Ola and managing OHA’s social media platforms.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and a certificate in Pacific Island Studies. Alice has volunteered her time to support the communications efforts of Indigenous community-based language programs in American Samoa and Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
