Leela Bilmes Goldstein, PhD, Chairperson
Leela is Director of Advancement Services at Punahou School, and serves on the boards of Abilities Unlimited Hawai‘i, AAUW – Honolulu, and Iona Contemporary Dance. She is also a co-founder and Board Chair of the leadership program Girls Talk Back that works to empower girls and young women to be compassionate leaders and change agents. She earned her PhD in linguistics from UC Berkeley and has authored several papers on HFRJ’s work. In addition to English, she speaks both Thai and French.
Ian Crabbe, Vice-Chairperson
Ian is a licensed electrician who openly shares that he was incarcerated at Waiawa Correctional Center when he had one of the first huikahi reentry circles in 2005. HFRJ designed, provided, researched, and reported on this restorative reentry circle process. Ian was pardoned by Governor Abercrombie, and has been an active volunteer with HFRJ since his release from prison. As a Native Hawaiian, and justice impacted person, his help with HFRJ’s work his work, as all our board members’ assistance, has been invaluable.
Madonna Castro Perez, Esq., Secretary
Madonna is an attorney and currently works for a venture capital firm based in California and Hawai‘i. Before going to law school, she was a paralegal for the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i. Madonna has a special interest in advancing the rights of marginalized and Indigenous people. She is Chamorro and her family is from Guam. She has been with HFRJ for over 10 years.
Roger Epstein, Esq., Treasurer
Roger has a long history volunteering for the community and has been assisting HFRJ for over 20 years. He is a retired Senior Partner with the Cades & Schutte law firm and is a co-founder of the Hawai’i Forgiveness Project. Roger has a long history of assisting numerous non-profits in the state for many years.
Joelle Segawa Kane, Esq
Joelle is a partner in the law firm Gallagher Kane. She is a member of the American Bar Association, Hawai’i State Bar Association, Insurance, Probate and Estate Planning and Elder Law Sections, and the Hawai’i Estate Planning Council. She is Native Hawaiian and has a strong interest in Hawaiian equality in the child welfare and criminal justice systems.
Thomas Haia, State District Court Judge
Thomas Haia is a Judge of the District Court, First Circuit, State of Hawai‘i. He is of native Hawaiian ancestry and is a member in good standing of the Hawai‘i Kai Lion’s Club and Saint Louis Alumni Association. Prior to serving as a Judge, Haia had a private law practice representing many indigent clients in child welfare cases.
Richard Turbin, Esq., Past-Chairperson
Rich is past HFRJ Chair, Senior partner Turbin Chu Heidt, Waialae Kahala Neighborhood Board, member MADD and Alliance Francaise of Hawai’i, and former chair of the East West Center board of directors. He and his wife Rai Saint Chu have spent decades supporting marginalized communities in Hawai‘i including Rich’s representation of incarcerated people harmed in jail and prison due to the state’s negligence. Rich and Rai met working for the Legal Aid Society over 40 years ago. Rai successfully litigated against the government for Hawaiian rights in regaining visits to Kaho‘olawe
CONTRACTORS & PRO BONO PROVIDERS
Lorenn Walker, JD, MPH
Lorenn has volunteered with HFRJ since 1994 and was named its first executive director in 2013. She is a social scientist, public health educator, and restorative lawyer with an extensive background in education and social services. She develops, provides, researches, and evaluates learning programs, and has authored over 60 articles and 3 books since 1999. She is also co-developer of Apology Helper, a free, confidential online tool for apology, forgiveness, and recovery, created with Finnish psychiatrist Ben Furman, MD. A high school dropout who left home in her early teens and was briefly incarcerated at 16, Lorenn brings lived experience to her work with people navigating the justice system and other difficult circumstances.
Jeannie Lum, PhD
Jeannie is HFRJ’s K-12 school programs coordinator. She is an adjunct professor of education and innovation for Webster University and a retired University of Hawai’i education professor who specialized in peace building education for students learning to become teachers. She is the managing editor of the Journal for Peace Education, the author of numerous academic publications, and has presented at dozens of national and international academic conferences. She is an educational consultant who obtained her PhD from the University of California Berkeley where she also received her masters degree. Additionally, Jeannie is a “master gardener” who developed and assists with providing PeaceGardens for schools.
Diana L. Bethel, PhD
Diana has assisted the Hawai’i Friends as a tutor supervisor since 2021in the higher and continuing education pilot project at the Women’s Community Correctional Center. She has been the team leader of the tutor supervisors since 2022. She is a criminal justice reform advocate and believes that our criminal justice institutions must model fairness and humanity for the sake of people in custody as well as the communities that they will return. Diana’s background is in anthropological gerontology and the anthropology of medicine. Her fieldwork was conducted in Japan in an institution for the elderly where she observed the ways that familial relationships and a sense of community were recreated in the institution. She sits on the Peace & Social Concerns Committee and the Earthcare Subcommittee of the Honolulu Friends Meeting (Quakers). She believes the power of a holistic education is its ability to assist people in discovering personal meaning, community, and solutions to the crises facing our world today.
Xiao Yi
Xiao Yi leads the Kalihi Leadership Academy, continuing the work of its founder, the late Lisa Contreras Jensen, through mentoring, leadership development, and community connection for Micronesian and other Kalihi youth. She lives in Kalihi and is a Honolulu-based community leader with 20+ years of experience spanning nonprofit development, military service, and civic engagement across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. Xiao also advises businesses and community enterprises—bringing financial acumen, cultural competency, and deep community trust to her work. She is committed to building organizations and communities that endure.
Allison Jacobs, JD
Allison Jacobs has a lifelong commitment to racial and social justice. She received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley and had civil law practices in Hawai‘i and Connecticut involving cases concerning employment discrimination, domestic violence, and child welfare. She’s worked as a guardian ad litem and court appointed mediator. Ms. Jacobs worked for the Hawai‘i State Legislature for three years, as a Legislative Research Analyst and for two years as a Committee clerk. She is an advocate for criminal justice reform and has worked with the Hawai‘i Community Alliance on Prisons. She has been trained in restorative practices and facilitates for Hawai’i Friends of Restorative Justice. Ms. Jacobs is also a facilitator for the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu for the ADORE (A Dialogue on Race and Ethnicity) program, created by Paula Cole Jones to raise awareness about race and multiculturalism. She participates in Jubilee Anti-Racism Training studying elements of the white supremacy eco-system, its culture, historical timeline, and how it currently operates today.
Samantha Walker Saraniti, MSW, ASW, MBA
Samantha has volunteered in a variety of areas for HFRJ since 2003. She has an MSW from Sacramento State University and an MBA from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
Susana “Sana” Román
Susana “Sana” Román started as a HFRJ volunteer who became a member of the Nā Hoku Organizing Committee for the Justice Innovations Summit. Sana is a seasoned Special Education (SpEd) teacher in Hawai`i public schools since 2009, teaching all content areas from grades 7 to 12 across all settings. Sana applies restorative practices in all her classes and is an active member of the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) on the Windward Chapter Government Relations Committee, as well as a participant in the National Education Association (NEA) Leaders for Just Schools program, fighting the good fight to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.
Running Club Coach Volunteers at Women’s Community Correctional Center:
Joanne Amberg, retired nurse practitioner
Jennifer Van Deldon, retired physical therapist
Nancy Youngren, retired attorney
IN LOVING MEMORY OF LISA CONTRERAS JENSEN, MA, (1963–2025)
Lisa Contreras Jensen, founder of the Kalihi Leadership Academy and beloved HFRJ board member and treasurer, passed away in October 2025 after living bravely with ovarian cancer. We extend our deepest condolences to her family—Mike, Thor, and the Kalihi community—and to her longtime colleague Innocenta Sound Kikku.
Lisa first encountered HFRJ around 2005 and immediately became a passionate supporter. She served on HFRJ’s board for about five years with skill, compassion, and deep aloha. She founded KLA to support Micronesian and other Kalihi youth through mentoring, leadership, and community connection. Young people called her “Auntie Lisa” —and many felt she was a “second mother” to them.
In her honor, we are hopeful about establishing the Lisa Contreras Jensen Scholarship for Kalihiyouth who go to college. We are grateful to Xiao Yi for continuing to lead KLA and to Lisa’s friends whose generosity will help carry her work forward.
Lisa is deeply missed.
In Loving Memory of Diane Stowell, LMFT, (1934-2017)
Diane’s influence lives on in HFRJ’s work. She partnered with Lorenn in 2006 to meet people who had pled guilty to violent crimes in their homes, offering them the chance to repair relationships restoratively—work that required both clinical skill and courage.
A licensed marriage and family therapist, Diane brought decades of experience to HFRJ: facilitating solution-focused and restorative interventions with adults and youth, serving as a senior mediator and trainer at the Mediation Center of the Pacific since 1986, and spending 12 years as a school psychologist in California. She also trained educators across the US and Europe on working with youth facing challenges.
Beyond her clinical life, Diane was a phenomenal athlete. She was a world record–holding swimmer and accomplished outrigger canoe racer. Her legacy reminds us to do our best and pursue what we love, at every age.