About

Karen has been a life-time activist for social justice and peace. Starting at age 14 she was a part of history that involved in peace and equal rights activism and was featured in Life Magazine in 1965 in an Equal Rights march.

Retired now, her careers spanned solar energy (she published scientific papers in the 70s), utility engineer, and computer game design. She founded Redwood Games and won numerous awards for her computer games. She was the first person to feature the choice of male or female characters in games and the first person to write a PC game with speech (prior to the advent of soundcards).

Karen is a member of various nonprofit environmental and social justice organizations. She was a Vice-Chair in the Democratic party for eight years and created their website.

She is  always willing to help new political progressive candidates and good causes with free websites and advice.

She is a  leader in the Stop Cane Burning movement and courageously persevered in the face of threats to her life. She is credited with making it safe to advocate to end sugarcane burning on Maui. During this time, she maintained her friendships with HC&S employees and worked hard to convince A&B to fund the HC&S transition to new crops in order to preserve jobs.

Karen is an outrigger canoe paddler. She and her husband founded North Shore Renegades canoe club as well as coaching at both Kihei and Na Kai ‘Ewalu canoe clubs.

3 thoughts on “About”

  1. Just thought I’d let you know that after several of us neighbors on Baldwin Ave in Paia complained last year about the cane burning, they “green harvested” the field behind our homes. So they can do it without burning if they really want to. Additionally after all the dust from cultivation they decided to try not replanting the cane, and just let the plants come up by themselves. However they came up to random for them, so they had to disc the field again, causing more dust, and then replant.

  2. Hi! Im trying to get some reliable info on areas affected by cane burning as we are coming to Maui to look for property. Are there any areas to avoid? We are looking for farm land.
    Thanks!

    • It’s easier to tell you where there is no or little cane smoke: Kula, East Haiku to Hana, Makena, Waihe’e, Kahakuloa

Comments are closed.