Meet the people who made it all happen in 2016!
Organizing VegFest Oahu is a large effort. Our team is made up entirely of dedicated volunteers working for months to bring this inspiring day to our island community. These are the Everyday Changemakers that are helping make VegFest Oahu a transformational experience for you.
Core Leadership Team
JOY WATERS – Festival Producer
Joy, the entrepreneur behind Positive Media Hawaii, is a relentless optimist on a mission to inspire people to be enthused and engaged citizens. Her passion is creating life-changing media content and events. A vegan foodie and long-time advocate for plant-based living, she produced the TV show Tasty and Meatless long before Hawaii had its first vegetarian restaurant. She is the Organizer of the Oahu Vegan Meetup and Group Leader of the Honolulu PlantPurePod. Joy decided to produce VegFest Oahu because she believes this event will strengthen the local, plant-based community and be the tipping point towards more sustainable local perspectives.
MICHAEL WALL – Festival Director
Michael is a percussionist, public speaker, group facilitator, educator, author, and songsmith in service to empowered learning, nurturing community, and the celebration of Spirit. He is proud to be a vegan, and is deeply committed to compassion for all beings. He is an Advanced Artistic Teaching Partner through the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Art’s Artists in the Schools Program. He is also author of Live Your Dreams and offers Playful Percussion interactive conference presentations and team building workshops for adults. For more on his many projects, visit Creative Living Services.
DOORAE SHIN – Greening Coordinator
Doorae recently received her B.A. in Sustainability Studies at the University of Hawaii. She left her mark on the University by organizing Earth Day festivals, leading the campaign to ban styrofoam from campus, and convincing the University to serve all vegan meals at its annual Sustainability Summit. She now works for the Kokua Hawaii Foundation bringing the Plastic Free Hawaii message to public schools. She is an enthusiastic and valuable asset to the VegFest Oahu organizing team in many capacities and is managing the process of Greening the Event. Read her vegan musings on her blog.
Principal Team
Andrea Nandoskar – Speaker Series Coordinator and Social Media Team. Andrea is co-founder of MOGOLEHA (MOst GOod LEast HArm) Hawaii, a group of four feisty plant-based friends who launched Hawaii’s first Humane Education Week. The MOGO gals are dedicated to living lightly on Earth and creating catalytic experiences that help people experience the benefits of a compassionate lifestyle. Andrea is also co-founder of Green Earth Media, a local event production company that produced the Oahu Premiere of the Sundance film FUEL.
Rebecca Corby – Free Vegan Samples Tent Coordinator. Rebecca, aka Mermaid Citrine, is a professional mermaid with her business, Mermaids of Hawaii. She is a passionate vegan Chef and loves to change hearts and minds by showing folks how delicious vegan cuisine can be! While in Austin, TX she owned “Green Island Catering”, organized the yearly “Vegan Party Barge”, and helped plan the first Texas VegFest. Now back in Hawaii (where the water is better for mermaids) she occasionally teaches cooking classes.
David Atcheson – Website Support. David is a community activist with a background in software and conservation. He was an early steering committee member of the local eco group Transition Oahu, helping promote awareness of and resilience to energy, climate, and economic challenges and is a graduate of Oahu’s first permaculture design certificate course. He is active with his family in the Honpa Hongwanji Buddhist community in Hawaii. Self-employed in web communications, David has provided significant pro bono assistance in developing VegFest Oahu’s website.
Jordan Ragasa– Learning Kitchen Tent Coordinator. Jordan is an Ilokano born and raised in Kalihi, currently working at Kokua Kalihi Valley. He finds excitement in veganizing Filipino cuisine as a way to make plant-based healing easily accessible to his community. Jordan manages FilVegans, a Facebook page dedicated to sharing Filipino food inspiration and vegan recipes from the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora. He draws inspiration for his work from his family, the natural environment and his connection to his ancestors.
Joseph Heaukulani – Videography Team and Aloha Activism Projects. Joe is one of those people who seems to be involved in everything on the island! He works to transform Hawaii’s communities through engagement and empowerment in Civics, Farming, Fashion & Tech.
Otis Schaper– Music Stage Sound Engineer. Otis generously donated use of all equipment needed for the Music Stage as well as long hours at the event to make sure the bands sound their best. A musician in his own right, Otis is known as the “Bob Dylan of Haleiwa” and often plays at local venues. Otis owns The Factory, a surfboard manufacturing company. He has been a vegetarian for over 20 years.
Joe Teipel – Music Stage Emcee. Joe is a well known local and national media personality. Through his company, Joe Teipel Enterprises, he has served over 5000 events with his announcing, auctioneering, emcee, voice-over and on-camera skills. Joe first became a committed vegetarian out of love for his two precious Yorkies who opened his heart to compassion for all God’s creatures.Key Volunteers
- Victoria Garnier for the beautiful graphic design work for our banners, tent signs, and festival schedules.
- Jaime Lynn Lano for her artist skills in creating our “I pledge to go (more) VEG!” Photo-Op Billboard.
- Donna Lay for creating the Blessing Tree as part of our Aloha Activism projects.
- Tony Querubin for a long day helping with technical assistance for the PowerPoint presentations at the Speaker Series tent.
- Tara Severns for being our Google Forms Goddess.
- MamaT Gonsalves for creative consulting.
- Carol Janezic for outreach with sponsor search and online calendars.
