Lynn Fulton, Maui Health CEO, was awarded the prestigious Pacific Business News Women Who Mean Business award for 2025. Presented annually, the award recognizes women making a significant impact in their industries and communities by excelling in both business and community leadership. A Maui Health representative shared, “Fulton has been at the helm since January 1, 2024, and is a transformative leader. Under her direction, Maui Health has made substantial strides in improving operational efficiency by fostering a culture of support, growth and development.”
Fulton has been leading hospitals, ambulatory sites, and related ventures in operations, strategic planning, finance, business expansion, and team development for over two decades. “I am incredibly honored to receive this recognition,” Fulton said. “I believe that successful leadership is rooted in collaboration and empowerment. I am deeply committed to the people of Maui Health—our staff, community physicians, residents and visitors to Maui County—and am excited to continue driving positive change in our hospital and community.”
Perhaps most significant has been Fulton’s commitment to investing in Maui Health’s workforce to improve internal culture and empower staff to reach their fullest potential. Within a few months joining Maui Health, she launched a comprehensive leadership development program, providing regular education, training, and resources for department leaders, supporting their future career growth.
Fulton is also dedicated to investing in local students’ success and working to stabilize Maui’s workforce with healthcare career awareness and training programs. Maui Health recently partnered with Maui Economic Development Board’s STEMworks™ program to organize 3 healthcare career exploration events at Maui Memorial Medical Center for 187 local middle and high schoolers. The students learned life-saving skills directly from healthcare professionals, including CPR, techniques to stop serious bleeding, and how to recognize a stroke. Maui Health staff also reenacted an emergency room scenario to show students the critical roles of every member of the ER team.
Maui Health is also offering a paid summer internship program this year. The program will offer hands-on experiences while providing an inside look at the vital non-clinical roles that support patient care. It is designed for college and graduate students who want to explore the healthcare field and those looking to have a career on Maui.
Maui Health provides a great opportunity for students to be able to build a career. There is nothing like seeing what happens in a hospital through interactions with the people who work here.
Lynn Fulton, CEO, Maui Health
Maui’s youth are taking center stage at this year’s Maui Matsuri Children’s Festival. The free multicultural events will take place on Saturday, May 10, at Queen Kaʻahumanu Center, and this year’s event will feature Maui Economic Development Board’s STEMworks AFTERschool program with students and teachers from across Maui County. The students will showcase a variety of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) projects through hands-on activities that honor both Hawaiian culture and STEM innovation.
Each STEMworks AFTERschool site will host a table featuring interactive displays and student-led presentations. Participating schools and activities will include:
Iao Intermediate: honoring Mother’s Day through a hula performance and tribute to Queen Liliʻuokalani and presenting projects in coding, entrepreneurship, and healthcare
Kalama Intermediate: hosting a special hula performance as well as robotics, art, 3D printing showcase, and optical illusion photo and video activities
Lokelani Intermediate: providing beaded bracelet activities and a showcase of digital art, interactive student video games, and 3D printed designs
Maui Waena: highlighting media and entrepreneurship student projects
Molokai Middle: showcasing native Hawaiian plants and agriculture, robotics
Pukalani Elementary: providing introductory STEM activities and robotics demonstrations
This community event is a chance to support local students and see the impact of the STEMworks AFTERschool program. Families, educators, and community members are all invited to enjoy the day, celebrate keiki, and be inspired by local STEM students’ talent and dedication to learning.
The festival will start at 10am, with other performances and activities including a Chinese lion dance, a cultural parade, a Bayanihan folk dance, and a wide variety of craft tables run by local organizations. For more information about the Maui Matsuri Children’s Festival, including the event schedule, visit https://mauimatsuri.com/. To learn more about the STEMworks AFTERschool program, visit https://www.stemworkshawaii.org/afterschool.
Community members are also invited to mark their calendars for the Maui Matsuri Japanese Festival, which will take place on Saturday, May 24 from 3pm to 9pm at UH Maui College.
This year’s Hawaiʻi STEM Conference, organized by Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) STEMworks™ program, welcomed almost 600 attendees, including over 70 teachers and 300 students in grades 6-12 from all across the state. The conference featured two keynote speakers, an exhibit hall with 30 organizations tabling, 47 student breakout sessions, 13 teacher breakout sessions, a speed networking session with over 50 STEM industry professionals, a college mentorship roundtable session, and 14 different pre-conference and on-site STEM competitions for student attendees. In addition to over 225 attending industry professionals, the conference was supported by its sponsors, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, AECOM, the Henry Kapono Foundation, Pacific Point, and the Stupski Foundation.
STEMworks closed the conference with the much-anticipated STEMMY Awards ceremony, announcing the following student competition winners: • Conference T-Shirt Graphic Design Winner: Lucy Blanchard (Kauaʻi HS) • Conference Sticker Graphic Design Winner: Collin Francks (Kauaʻi HS) • Social Media Content Winner: Kahakuha’akoi Hamakua-Laemoa (Molokai HS) • Renewable Energy Innovation in Everyday Objects Winner: Chelsey Miguel (King Kekaulike HS) • AI in Urban Waste Management Winners: Jeremiah Jacinto, Dylan Molina, and Ayden Truong (Baldwin HS) • Backyard Agricultural Innovation Winners: Krishen Doronio, Sarah Fahnestock, and Jonathan McDonnell (Maui HS) • The Importance of Laughter Health PSA Winners: Janica Andres and Charelle Jan Ramo (Keaʻau HS) • Video Game Design, Level 1 Winners: Aeioumyl Calleda, Erica Barut, and Tucker Weeks (Maui Waena Intermediate) • Video Game Design, Level 2 Winners: Emilio JP Madriago, Chrulsantino Ruiz, and Leson Chen (Maui HS) • Video Game Design, Level 3 Winners: Mazzy McCloud, Marlena Morgan, and Sofia Stading (Island Pacific Academy) • STEMworks Lab Spotlight winners: Aileen Kim and Jeremiah Jacinto (Baldwin HS) • Growing Beyond Earth Project Winners: Kilohana Meyer, Mahealani Braxton, and Timika McLaurin (Molokai HS) • Conference Highlight Video Competition (run in partnership with HIKI NŌ of PBS Hawai’i) winners: Emma Jane Roy, Miya Suzuki, and Penelope Dolin (Baldwin HS) • Entrepreneurship Competition (run in partnership with VentureLab) Winners: Aileen Kim, Sofia Kloft-Hibbard, Jamie Flower, Aris Rumbaoa, Malie Grundy, and Emma Agocolicol (Baldwin HS)
Takes a good team to impact people’s lives, this is what the STEMworks team does for high school kids. I got a team that does the same for people striving to be the best. The best is yet to come. Go STEM…teamwork!
Henry Kapono, Musician and Co-Founder, Henry Kapono Foundation
STEMworks™, a program of Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), is gearing up for its 16th Annual Hawaiʻi STEM Conference (HSC), a two-day learning and networking event for students, teachers, and industry professionals. This year, HSC will be held at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center in Honolulu on March 24 and 25. It is open to middle and high school students statewide as well as K-12 teachers. Industry professionals are also invited to participate as exhibitors, breakout session presenters, networking event speakers, and sponsors.
Reflecting on the value of the event for students, one 8th grader who participated in HSC in 2024 shared, “Students would really benefit from attending conferences in general to meet new people and have practice with the protocols of attending conferences to gain information for their future.” A 7th grader from Lahaina who also attended HSC in 2024 commented, “The most interesting thing I learned during the conference was to get out of my comfort zone and try new things.”
Local industry professionals from a wide variety of STEM fields lead breakout sessions for students and teachers, provide interactive activities in the exhibit hall, and offer career and post-secondary education advice during networking opportunities. Breakout session topics include AI, forensic science, healthcare, computer programming, game design, agriculture, and creative media. Through these hands-on sessions, students discover career pathways and fields of study they may never have considered before the event.
A senior interested in healthcare shared about their experience during the 2024 HSC: “I learned about how to design games and code! I never took an interest before but now I got the opportunity to learn, I love it!” After hearing about the experiences of STEM experts at the conference, a junior also observed, “you don’t have to stick to one thing. I’m just starting my own career journey, and I’m making my own decisions and pathway.”
Registration is open for students and teachers, and STEMworks is also accepting session proposals and exhibitor registration from industry professionals who would like to take part in the event. More information can be found on the HSC website, https://www.hawaiistemconference.org/.
The students having access to industry professionals in STEM fields and being able to attend this type of event is a blessing for our students from Molokai who rarely have these types of opportunities.
Gandharva Mahina Hou Ross, Hawaiian Language Immersion Teacher, Molokai High School
Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) recent Ke Alahele Education Benefit event successfully raised funds for local STEM education programs. During the event, the Daniel K. Inouye Innovation (DKII) Award winners were announced. The DKII Award honors students who use their STEM skills in service of their community. This year, Jennifer Goto Sabas, the late Senator Inouye’s former Chief of Staff and director of the Daniel K. Inouye Insitute, presented the award.
The winners were Maui High School students Janette White and Keani Kina, who completed a project for a child with mobility restrictions. They adapted a motorized toy car, rewiring it to replace the pedal with a button and redesigning the car seat. Their goal was to ensure that the car kept its original functionality while optimizing safety and accessibility. White commented, “the car helped a local neighbor in Maui, allowing a disabled child the freedom of directing herself in a safe and fun structure.”
Honorable mention went to Kahakaʻiwa Williams, representing Kalama Intermediate School, for his Hawaiian video game project. He combined his ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi knowledge with his interest in game design to create a game that walks users through the legend of the goddesses Pele and Nāmakaokahaʻi. “My motivation…is that there are no video games in the Hawaiian language that I am aware of,” Kaha commented. “This project is designed to inspire community members to learn more about Hawaiian culture and language through a fun activity.”
Chelsey Miguel, a King Kekaulike High School student, also received honorable mention. With her computer science skills, Miguel used AI to create a coral monitoring system, which allows users to upload photos of coral and receive a health assessment. Miguel shared, “I stumbled on a documentary about coral bleaching and its implications…I wanted to intersect my passion of programming and machine learning to help solve this problem.”
Thanks to the generosity of donors during the event, MEDB is able to present monetary prizes to the winners as well as those who received honorable mention and their teachers. Donations will also support the Ke Alahele Education Fund grant program, which helps educators and students access STEM tools, participate in extracurriculars, travel to competitions, and engage in professional development that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
It’s wonderful to be back after all these years. These were really happy times for the Senator. He loved this event and to see it come back as strong as it is, especially with the students, is actually very exciting.
Jennifer Goto Sabas,
Director of the Daniel K. Inouye Institute
