Ellen Namakaokealoha Kamoe has spent the last 20 years working at the intersection of information access and organization, philanthropy, social justice, and the arts.
Ellen earned her BA in anthropology at UCLA, with a focus on cultural preservation through dance, and went on to a career in non-profit fundraising and arts administration. She has worked on successful seven-figure grant proposals for the University of California’s Berkeley and Davis campuses; co-founded The Bare Life Review and the PEN/Bare Life Review Grants for immigrant and refugee writing; and is an active volunteer with Dance/USA’s Archives Funding Coalition. She earned her MLIS from the University of Washington and works as a project archivist for dance companies and choreographers, including AILEY.
Ellen is a member of the Solidaire Network and an alum of the Giving Project, a leadership training and community grantmaking program guided by Hawai’i People’s Fund. Her giving and donor organizing is informed by her lifelong advocacy for gender justice and Indigenous knowledge.
Ellen is a dual American-Austrian citizen with deep roots in Hawai’i. She was born and raised in the Bay Area.