Maunakea Management Board

The Maunakea Science Reserve Master Plan, and the Maunakea Comprehensive Management Plan reflect extensive community influence. The Maunakea Management Board provides the community with a sustained direct voice for the management of the Maunakea. The Board is comprised of seven members from the community who are nominated by the UH Hilo Chancellor and approved by the UH Board of Regents. The volunteer members represent a cross-section of the community and serve as the community’s voice providing input on operations and activities, developing policies, reviewing and providing recommendations for land uses planned for Maunakea. Meeting agendas, materials, and minutes are available for review. Visit the State of Hawaiʻi, Office of Information Practices, [Calendar of Events] for formal meeting notice and agenda.

Board Members

Roberta Chu (Chair)

Roberta is a fifth generation Hilo resident, graduate of Hilo High School and then Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She currently serves as Senior Vice President of the Hawaiʻi Island Commercial Banking Center and Hawaiʻi Island Manager for the Bank of Hawaii. She has over 25 years of commercial banking experience managing loan portfolios and client relationships in Los Angeles and on Hawai’i Island. Ms. Chu is a member of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation Board of Governors, advisory board member for the HCF East Hawaii Fund and Pauahi Foundation’s THINK Fund, board chair of The Kohala Center, president of Lei Ho‘olaha (a certified Community Development Financial Institution), twice past chair of Hawaiʻi Island Economic Development Board and board member of Community First. She is also a member of the Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference.

Billy Bergin

Billy is a native of the Big Island and former regent of the University of Hawaiʻi, Dr. Bergin was born and raised in Laupahoehoe. While a regent, Dr. Bergin collaborated with island stakeholders to bring the voice of Native Hawaiians to the conversations about Maunakea. This work resulted in the creation of the Kahu Kumauna advisory group. Bergin earned two bachelor's degrees, a master's degree and a doctorate of Veterinary medicine from Kansas State University. He has been a practicing veterinarian for over 50 years, and has served in leadership roles in many community organizations. In addition to his service on the Board of Regents, Dr. Bergin has also served on the boards of the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the National High School Rodeo Association, and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. He founded the Paniolo Preservation Society and is currently serving on the County of Hawaii Charter Review Commission. He currently resides in Kamuela.

Greg Chun

Dr. Chun is the former Vice President of Kamehameha Schools where he oversaw the Keauhou-Kahalu‘u Educational Group. His primary responsibilities included strategic and operational oversight of education and cultural programming and cultural asset management within Keauhou Resort. Previously, Chun was President of Bishop Holdings Corporation, Kamehameha Schools for-profit holding company for investment and real estate development activities.He is active in the community and serves on several boards, including chair of the Hawaiʻi Island Economic Development Board and Ulumau Leadership Series, and serves as a trustee of the Kona Community Hospital Foundation and Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation.He is principle of Awa Kele LLC, with core services of strategy and business development, and asset re-positioning, focusing on the development, education, and renewable energy sectors. The vision of Awa Kele LLC is to enrich the communities within which we live through the establishment of social and business networks, with particular interest in doing so by honoring our kupuna and the Hawaiian culture.

Julie Leialoha

Julie has worked in the natural resources management field in Hawaiʻi since 1985. Upon completing her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Ms. Leialoha was recruited by NOAA’s Endangered Marine Mammals Program in Honolulu and worked on recovering the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, traveling to Laysan Atoll and French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. She gained extensive experience in forest ecosystem and invasive species management while working for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife Natural Area Reserve System, and the Wao Kele O Puna Forest Reserve Partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. She served as manager for the Big Island Invasive Species Committee and served on the Hawaiʻi Cooperative Studies Unit in partnership with the USGS-Pacific Islands Ecological Research Center working on the Palila management program. She currently serves as program/project coordinator for the Hawaiʻi Cooperative Studies Unit. She has served on multiple boards, including the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi, Papahanaumokuakea Research Advisory Council, and Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council Native Hawaiian advisory group.

Diana L. Van De Car

Diana is a long-time resident of Volcano, and a retired litigation attorney. She is an alumna of the University of Hawai 'i at Manōa with her B.A. in English and her J. D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law. Her 38 years of experience include handing all aspects of the litigation and arbitration process. Representative matters included landowner liability and business and real estate disputes among other issues. Before starting her own law practice in 1994, she practiced at Case & Lynch, for whom she opened the Hilo office in 1981 and was named partner in 1985. She is a member of the Disciplinary Board of the Hawaii Supreme Court and the Governing Board of the Volcano School of Arts and Sciences. She has been a member of the American Bar Association Litigation Section, and the Hawaii State and East Hawaii Bar Associations. She has been an Arbitrator for the Hawaii Court-Annexed Arbitration Program since its inception and is former arbitrator on the National Roster of the American Arbitration Association. She is a past member and past president of the Rotary Club of Hilo and a past member of the Boards of Directors of the Hilo Downtown Improvement Association and the Volcano Art Center.

Andy Adamson

Andy is the Associate Director for the Hawaiʻi Site for Gemini Observatory. He has worked for Gemini Observatory since 2010, and has acted as a Gemini Observatory representative to the MKO Director’s group since 2018. Mr. Adamson has been a part of the Maunakea Observatories since 1998, when he first worked at UK Infrared Telescope as the Head of Operations and then Associate Director. He received his B.Sc. in Physics at Imperial College London, UK, in 1979, and Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Leicester, UK, in 1983. Prior to his time in Hawaii, he held positions at the University of St. Andrews and Lancashire Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire). His principal research interests are the composition and physical properties of dust grains in the interstellar medium. Mr. Adamson was appointmented to fill the remaining months of the term of Doug Simons (ending June 30, 2022) and a full four year term immediately following on the Mauna Kea Management Board.