Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 4, 1 April 1996 — OHA Update [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Update

Ross takes up OHA deputy post OHA has recently hired a new Deputy Administrator of Programs. Martha Ross, formerly executive director of the state Commission on the Status of Women, began in

this position March 18, 1996. Her most noteworthy aeeomplishments include: her recent chairing of the Violence Prevention Coordinating Council, to look at the feasibility of creating a Peaee Education curricula

for pre-schoolers through high school that incorporates human relation skills such as communication, offering and expecting mutual respect, non-violent conflict resolution, decision-making and accepting differences in others. A report on this study is going to the legislature for further action. The curricula received wide interest from more than 200 eommunity resources. She is also the eo-

founder of the first support groups for battered women on O'ahu, and co-chairs the Hawai'i Women's Coalition whieh advocates for legislative reform to improve the status of women and girls in Hawai'i. īn her new position she will coordinate and direct five OHA program divisions: eeonomie development, education, housing, health and human services and land and natural resources. The work involves overseeing the development of division plans, activities and related budgets; reviewing the aeeomplishments of the various programs and providing management reports; recommending changes in policies, rules and procedures to ensure eomplianee with governmental regulation and to improve OHA's programs. Ross will be directly responsible to Administrator Linda Colburn.

Martha Ross