Jay April
Jay April has served as President/ CEO of Akakū since January 2007, and has previously served on Akakū’s Board of Directors from 2001 to October 2006. Mr. April is a television producer, director, video journalist and artist whose work has been featured on many national networks and won awards from film festivals worldwide. Credits include special correspondent to CNN’s Environmental Unit, the TODAY Show on NBC and the much acclaimed PBS series, The 90s. He was responsible for the successful start up of E! Entertainment Television as a founding producer, and he has produced, directed, written and shot hundreds of television segments and commercial spots in a variety of genres. His documentaries about ecology and American culture have been called, “prolific and passionate” by The Wall Street Journal, “poignant” by the LA Weekly, and “provocative” by The Los Angeles Times.
In recent years, Mr. April has specialized in documentaries about Hawaiian culture, and he has been exploring the parameters of emerging digital video tools to make ground-breaking new media. He is currently developing strategic partnerships with talented video and internet era veterans to launch a first wave artist-in-residence television station to debut on the worldwide web.
Mr. April is an experienced national cable television consultant with a specialty in telecommunications policy, cable regulation and community programming. Clients have included the State of Connecticut, the City of Los Angeles, municipalities, non-profits, universities, and cable television companies. He brings eight years of managerial and administrative experience in PEG access; and he is one of the pioneers of the PEG access concept in the United States and a founding member of the Alliance for Community Media.
Awards include Hawaii International Film Festival (1999) San Francisco International Film Festival (1992, 1993), Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (1993), American Film Institute National Video Festival (1980, 1991), Sony Visions of US (1993), Jackson Hole International Wildlife Film Festival (1993), International Wildlife Film Festival (1992, 2001), Advertising Club of New York City (1997) and a National Cable Ace Nomination (1989).
April has taught courses in video for social change at Yale University. He holds a B.A. in English and Education with a minor in Theatre Arts from Boston College. He also took graduate courses in Television Production at University of Connecticut.
Suki Halevi, Akakū’s Director of Development, is dedicated to community outreach and working together with Maui organizations, agencies and funders in Hawai'i and beyond. Suki also assists with organizational development and strategic planning, and acts as special counsel to Akakū. Suki is a certified Akaku community producer; her first piece covered the Hawaii Supreme Court's live hearing on a constitutional case, in front of an audience of students from seven Maui high schools.
Suki is a member of the bar of Hawai'i and Massachusetts, has been a community consultant with Pasifika Foundation Hawai’i, is a coordinator for the Maui Film Festival at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, and teaches Sunday School at Congregation Beit Shalom in Kihei.
As an attorney, Suki has argued First Amendment cases before the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Before arriving on Maui in 2007, Suki worked for a law firm that specializes in employee-owned businesses and for the Cooperative Fund of New England. Suki has facilitated consensus decision-making with non-profit organizations in transition, completed a green renovation of a 1930s Craftsman bungalow, and enjoyed being part of a local homeschooling community. Suki graduated from Vassar College, has a master’s degree from Tufts University and graduated with honors from Duke University School of Law.
Sayble Bissen
Director of Production
Sayble was born and raised on Maui and attended Kamehameha Schools Maui. She recently graduated from Santa Clara University with a BA in Communication and is hoping to earn a Master's Degree in the near future. Sayble was looking to gain some experience/knowledge with television and production which led her to Akaku where she was thrust into the action right away. "I hope to someday get a taste of the television/movie industry. If that doesn't work out my second choice as an astronaut shouldn't be too tough. Fly me to the moon." She also had the greatest opportunity to travel to countries around the Mediterranean and ever since she has the travel bug and really hopes to be able to see more of the world in the future.
Chivo Ching-Johnson
Producer
Stephen Luksic
Technical Director
Stephen Luksic has been a freelance editor and video technician on Maui Since 1994. He designed and executed multimedia shows all over the world. He came to Maui after 5 years with The American Film Institute. The first 3 years he was the Video Operations Coordinator at the Sony Video Center, which produced over 150, thirty minute student films a year. During his last two years at the AFI he was Technical Director for the Advanced Technology Programs where he managed a media lab with 20 workstations and 30 software applications associated with filmmaking. He was introduced to Interactive video design and production in 1985 and was part of an award winning team. At age 17 he was Assistant Director at WHYY -TV 12 in Philadelphia.
Shawn Michael
"I see Akaku's mission to ʻempower the community's voice through access to mediaʻ as the first and foremost mission we have as a non-profit," said Michael. Michael plans to expand this mission to not only empower the community's voice via video, but empowering voices from all types of communication including Twitter, Facebook, blogs, pictures, Instagram and whatever else becomes the norm in daily life.
He plans to create dynamic ways to incorporate the communityʻs voice not only through the videos they create but by converting as much of the broadcast as he can into Social Network TV. This will empower the community to control the images and messages upon the screen without the need, and sometimes technical burden, of "creating a video". He also plans to have as much live and real-time content broadcast on the channel as possible, utilizing the many tools and feeds available to everyone.
"Akaku is that unique blazing star that Maui County's community would be at a loss and lesser without," Michael expressed.
Terrie Roberts
Administrative Director
As a long time Kama’aina, Terrie has a large extended family in Hawaii raising her son and daughter in Kula and became a “Tutu” in January of 2010.
In 1987, Terrie became a partner in Sunset Tropicals, a company that ships exotic tropicals and protea throughout Hawaii, the mainland and sometimes abroad. Terrie began working at Akaku as a part time Executive Administrative Assistant in July of 2008.
In her “spare time?”, Terrie enjoys playing tennis in the USTA Hawaii League with a 3.5 rating and also loves being a team player with all the staff members of Akakū.
Dan Emhof
Molokai Media Center Director
Daniel Emhof is the director of the Akakū: Molokai Media Center. He has been honing his media skills through dedicated service to the people of Molokai since 2004. Serving to empower the Molokai community with video literacy training, cultural productions, coverage of local governance, and community building outreach projects. "Working at Akakū has filled my world with possibilities and opportunities. Possibilities to learn new skills every day, and opportunities to help make the place I live better every day".
Linda Dorset
Production Specialist
Linda and her son took a couple of classes at Akakū in hopes of steering the son to a career; linda got hooked. Linda started spicing up her boring years at various boring clerical jobs by producing Pet Files, a show for the Maui Humane Society and later lucked into a position with Akakūʻs production department. Linda has spent many exciting hours in the control room at the County building capturing the drama of the council meetings.
Steven R. Clark
Production Specialist
Steven Clark comes to us from the desert. After his escape, Akakū found that he would be willing to do anything not to be sent back to the desert and thatʻs when he started working for Akakū. Luckily, Steven has over 15 years of audio and video experience, so he has been pretty useful to us. Steven records the county council for airing on Akakū and works with the Akakū production department to help Akakū serve the voice the community.
Peter King
Maui Facility Coordinator aka "Minister of Camera Relations"
Peter graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a degree in
communication and video production. He has worked on the Morning Show on
KHON channel 2, along with Olelo Oahu community television and the UH
Media lab as an equipment technician. Peter manages the front desk and is
responsible for all equipment used by the public, and films many local and
community events on Maui.
Anthony Kaauamo Pacheco
Lanai Media Center Director
Anthony Kaauamo Pacheco was born and raised on the island of Lanai. Graduating from Lanai High School in 2003, he left for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to study English. After taking a film production class as an elective he changed majors and transferred to the University of Hawaii, Manoa to attend the Academy for Creative Media. After earning his bachelor's degree in film production he worked on numerous commercials, television shows and feature films as a production assistant. Returning to Lanai with Akaku, he hopes to help his community understand and utilize the tools and methods of visual communication to share their stories with the wider world.
Kat Tracy
Director Project YBEAM
(Youth Broadband Education Awareness and Mentoring)
Kat Tracy is Director of Akaku’s innovative new media youth program, YBEAM, (Youth Broadband Education Awareness and Mentoring). Kat developed the YBEAM curriculum that leads to becoming a Certified Youth Mobile Journalist and she facilitates the month long program throughout Maui Nui. Kat also maintains the program site, MauiTube.org that hosts the YBEAM program content and their community stories produced by program youth. Kat continues to be instrumental in beta testing both the VeriTV and VeriLocal video hosting sites developed by leading new media journalism pioneers VeriCorder. Furthering the research and work of YBEAM, Kat looks forward to helping Akaku integrate mobile journalism tools and workflow into the greater community, expanding the organizations mission to empowering Maui’s voice through access to media.
Kat’s freelance video production company, Kat Tracks Hawaii, has been in business since 2000. Kat has worn a variety of hats as a supporting crewmember on numerous movie and TV productions, both Nationally and Internationally. Kat produced two award-winning documentaries, “Passing the Gift” and “The Road to Hana Clean-Up”. Kat also served as the Media Director for the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association until 2005, writing press releases and sending video content worldwide. Additionally, Kat taught media production skills to Maui youth through the Paia Youth and Cultural Center’s ‘Venture Media’ program.
Kat has a degree in Electronic Technology Engineering with a minor in Communications. Kat has been on Maui since 1988 and came to Hawaii to learn more about her mother’s Hawaiian roots and to learn to surf, windsurf and kite. Kat has successfully raised three daughters.
Shanti Berg
Production Specialist YBEAM
(Youth Broadband Education Awareness and Mentoring)
Shanti Berg has been a freelance television and video producer on the island of Maui since 1998. He has travelled extensively and gained international television experience producing shows for professional sports organizations throughout the world. His work has aired on networks such as Eurosport, Sky News Network, Telemundo, Fox Sports, TNN and many more. Currently Shanti is pursuing a Bachelor of Applied Science degree at University of Hawaii Maui College in Sustainable Science Management. This gives Shanti a unique perspective on television production and new media development in our island state.
