Full Panelist Biographies:

Ryan Masa, Assets Schools
Ryan serves as the Head of School for Assets School (Honolulu, HI), a K-12 independent school specializing in students who are gifted, have a learning difference, or are “twice-exceptional.” 

Ryan has previously served as a teacher and administrator, as an adjunct professor of education, and with non-profits supporting education. Ryan helped found a Hawaiian-focused charter school in conjunction with the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Malama Honua Worldwide Voyage, which became the sole school in the country to receive the Buck Institute for Education’s Project Based Learning Champion Award in 2018. 

Ryan has or currently serves on the boards of the International Dyslexia Association – Hawaii Branch, Malama Honua Public Charter School, Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, and the Alumni Council of the Harvard Graduate School Education. Ryan also serves as a Leap of Reason Ambassador, a private community of international nonprofit thought leaders, practitioners, funders, and policy makers dedicated to continuous improvement so nonprofits can achieve more meaningful, measurable, and financially sustainable results.  Ryan received his B.S. and B.A. degrees from Miami University (Oxford, OH) and his Ed.M. from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA).

Assets' Mentorship Program is a required course that extends learning beyond the curriculum, enhances self-esteem through career-related responsibility, and provides access to community role models. The mentorship experience broadens considerably for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Based on students’ interests and personal qualifications, Assets matches students with various companies and organizations in the community.

Chad Nico Hiu, YMCA of San Francisco
Chad [@chadnico] is a Hawaii-born New Yorker Chicagoan, student of the world, and current Senior Vice President for Strategy, Innovation and Impact with the YMCA of San Francisco. In this role, he serves as a catalyst in ensuring continuous strategic alignment across all areas of the Ys work in innovatively, equitably and nimbly responding to the needs of the diverse communities the Y serves across the Bay Area, formalizing the Y’s strategic-planning processes, translating it for people across functions, and driving equitable and community-centered organizational change.

Previously, Chad served with the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) Diversity, Inclusion & Global (DIG) team for ten years, most recently as Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion where he helped to build local, state-wide, national and global capacity to engage diverse, vulnerable, underserved and marginalized communities, co-led Y-USA’s DIG strategy and network, and integration of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, practices and programs towards community bridge building and social cohesion for all in the 10,000 communities the Y serves across the U.S. Prior to that, he served as Director of International Operations & Youth Exchanges for the YMCA of Greater New York, where he was part of an era of dynamic growth in cultural exchanges, collaborations, and global education/inclusion programming. Chad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services Administration & Youth Development and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management and Leadership from Springfield College in Massachusetts and a Global Studies Certificate from the University of Pittsburgh.

Chad serves on the Board of Directors for Howard Brown, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ health care networks, the Board of Trustees for the Tyler Clementi Foundation, dedicated to ending bullying in all forms, a volunteer with California Fair Trade, and formerly on the Chicago Fair Trade Board of Directors supporting workers rights and global social responsibility, has traveled to 40 countries on almost every continent of the world, participated in the globally recognized Semester at Sea study abroad program, volunteered with the CASA YMCA youth shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, represented Y-USA in global settings and the World YMCA at the United Nations. He helped launch the Ys inaugural partnership with the Biden Foundation advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity across 19 states and served as a policy volunteer with the Biden/Harris 2020 Campaign. He has lived in Hong Kong for two years, provided voter engagement support to various political campaigns, and served as Youth Director with the YMCA of Honolulu. Chad can be reached at CNHiu@ymcasf.org and lives in San Francisco, California with his husband of eleven years.

Rona Yagi Fukumoto, Lanakila Pacific
Rona is the President and CEO of Lanakila Pacific, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to offering programs and services that build independence and improve quality of life for individuals with disabilities. Before joining Lanakila Pacific, she was the Division Administrator for Catholic Charities Hawaii’s Housing Assistance and Referral Programs division, an experience she credits for building a broad understanding of resources and non-profit partners in Hawaii. Rona currently serves as the Secretary of the Hawaii Housing Finance Development Corporation and is a member of the Catholic Charities Housing Development Corporation and the Hawaii Access to Justice Commission. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in public administration from UH Manoa.