Iwalani is a Strategic Impact Intern with the Better Way Foundation, where she is researching and writing storytelling briefs that highlight Better Way’s program-related investments in Native CDFIs. She is also supporting funder mobilization efforts, including the Santa Fe Funder Gathering.
Iwalani grew up in Lompoc, a small predominantly low-income agricultural town on the Central Coast of California, and has roots in Waimea, Hawai’i, where her family has lived for generations. While in high school, she led a youth civic campaign that passed a $160M school bond for 10,000 students in Lompoc. That experience set the direction for her work, leading her to the Oakland Literacy Coalition, where fundraising and grant writing efforts she supported brought in new funding for culturally responsive literacy resources across Oakland public schools and nationally.
Currently, Iwalani is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley Haas studying Business Administration with a minor in Public Policy. Iwalani is drawn to questions about how economic development and educational policy shape outcomes for BIPOC communities, and the impact capital can have when it is placed in hands rooted in community. At Haas, she co-founded/taught a student-run course with 30+ students on the fundamentals of impact investing, posing questions like: How are organizations measuring impact while evaluating returns? What are issues you care about that are not being funded?
In her free time she makes resin jewelry with abalone and ferns that reflect her mixed Kānaka Maoli (Hawaiian) heritage, hunts for the best swimming holes in California/Oregon, and loves visiting her local movie theater.
