Our Team
Kea Rutherford
President
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Kea Rutherford is a Columbia College student from Scarsdale New York. Her mother's side of the family is from Tabiang and Tabwewa on Rabi and Banaba. She is currently a freshman at Columbia University. Her efforts to aid the Banaban community initially began in the summer of 2021 when she created a fundly page to aid the Banabans in Fiji during COVID-19. From there, she was inspired to create a project to aid Banabans everywhere for education, culture, arts, and heritage projects identified as priorities by Banaban communities. So, she began the Fiery Canoe Foundation with the help of her mother, Maria, and her aunt, Katerina.
Professor Katerina Teaiwa
Vice President
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Katerina Teaiwa is Professor of Pacific Studies in the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University, Canberra. She is a leading Pacific Studies scholar and artist of Banaban (Tabbing, Tabwewa), Tabiteuean (Eita, Utiroa), African American and Fiji Islands heritage. In 2022 she won the national award for “University teacher of the year” from Universities Australia. Learn more about Banaban history in her book “Consuming Ocean Island: stories of people and phosphate from Banaba.”
https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/katerina-teaiwa
Dr. Maria Teaiwa-Rutherford
Secretary
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Maria Teaiwa-Rutherford is a board-certified Obstetrician-Gynecologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Born in Lautoka and raised in Suva, Fiji of Banaban, Tabiteuean and African American heritage, Dr. Teaiwa-Rutherford received her bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University and medical degree from Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Maintaining an office on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Dr. Teaiwa-Rutherford is deeply committed to Pacific Women’s Health and has provided care to patients and teaching of registrars at Tungaru Central Hospital in Kiribati.
Nerida Marcuse
Treasurer
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Nerida Marcuse is a Chartered Accountant with 27 years experience. She established and developed the finance function of a US based international NGO which grew from $US 1.3 million to $4.7 million income in two years. With experience in international environments, she has worked within marketing, education, FMCG, transport, tech and chartered accounting sectors. Nerida is passionate about using her finance skills to support organisations that are creating a better world for communities. Currently living in Canberra, Australia and soon relocating to the Netherlands.
Nick Simunovic
Director
Managing Director, Gagosian Asia
Since 2007, Nick Simunovic has been leading Gagosian’s operations in Asia. As Managing Director, Nick opened Gagosian’s Hong Kong gallery in January 2011. He serves on the gallery’s Board of Directors, directs the gallery’s participation in regional art fairs and works with artists and estates such as Hao Liang, Tetsuya Ishida, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik and Zeng Fanzhi. Prior to Gagosian, he was Director of Corporate Development at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Nick graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and has an MBA from The Harvard Business School.
Pelenise Alofa
Director
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Pelenise Alofa – also known as ‘Maike Pilitati’ – is from Kiribati’s Banaba Island and is National Coordinator of the Kiribati Climate Action Network (KiriCAN) a network of 10 organizations active on climate change. She is the former Country Manager for Live & Learn Kiribati which aims to educate, mobilize communities, and facilitate supportive partnerships in order to foster a greater understanding of sustainability, and to help move towards a sustainable future. Pelenise Alofa is an active advocate for stopping climate change internationally and in the Pacific region for the last 10 years. In September, 2021 she was recognized by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, with the Commonwealth Point of Light award in honor of her exceptional service advocating for climate change. She believes that nothing is impossible until it is done!
Dina Mondavi Rosas
Ambassador
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Dina Mondavi Rosas is a fourth generation vintner from the Napa Valley, California. The wine industry can be unique in that it touches many other industries and yet focuses on the good life. Design, marketing, printing labels, bottling, farming, harvesting, winemaking, aging, blending, creating impactful and memorable events and experiences, working within the 50 states and internationally which each have their own laws has created a variety pack of knowledge. Dina has been privileged to learn that a healthy community benefits all. Dina also manages the family giving which targets the health and safety of those in the Napa Valley. She splits her time between California and Hawai'i.
Dr. Satyendra Prasad
Ambassador
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Dr. Prasad Satyendra Prasad is the climate lead–Abt Associates and senior fellow in the South Asia and Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Programs at the Carnegie endowment for International Peace. He is the former Ambassador of Fiji to the United Nations in New York. He was also the Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Dr. Prasad has previously worked as the CEO of the Papua New Guinea Governance Facility; a senior adviser in the World Bank and in UK’s Department for International Development and has been an academic at Universities of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji; at University College-Cork in Ireland and Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University in Japan.
Dr. Jean Rutherford
Fundraising Chair
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Jean Rutherford earned her Doctorate in Education from Northern Illinois University. She served K-12 educational institutions as a teacher, guidance counselor, and assistant principal. Following these positions she led large high schools in Illinois and Texas as principal and as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction.
Dr. Rutherford was then called to lead Educational Initiatives for a school improvement research center at the University of Texas. She used these experiences and her research to author a Framework of Core Practices of Higher Performing K-12 Systems which was later integrated as the school improvement framework for ACT, Inc.
Dr. Farzaneh Nabizadeh
Merchandise Chair
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Dr. Farzaneh Nabizadeh is an obstetrician/gynecologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Dr. Nabizadeh has 20 years of practice in New York and Massachusetts and is also committed to volunteering her time to medical expertise.
She has worked with Doctors Without Borders and visits Guatemala with Surgicorps regularly on medical missions providing surgery to patients there. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, boxing, running marathons, and spending time with her dogs.
Bella Rutherford
Social Media Chair
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Isobel (Bella) Rutherford is a high school student at Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, New York. Her mother’s side of the family is from Tabiang and Tabwewa on Rabi and Banaba. She is also the founder of Edgemont High School’s Maji Movement chapter, an organization that builds water filters in Tanzania and provides families with clean drinking water. Bella has worked with her sister Kea and mother, Maria in the launch and benefit gala for the fiery canoe foundation. She enjoys traveling, skiing and learning about new cultures.
Charles Howard Martin
Foundational Secretary
Charles Howard Martin, J.D., M.B.A.
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Charles Martin graduated Cum Laude from Harvard College with a degree in Economics. He went on to receive his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall) and his M.B.A from Columbia Business School. Charles had a long and distinguished career practicing law for private, government and corporate clients and taught as a full time professor of contracts, sales law, and international law at law schools in the US and abroad. He is the author of two books: Lawyerball: The Courtroom Battle of the Orioles Against the Nationals and MLB for the Future of Baseball (2016) and Every1’s Guide to Electronic Contracts (2014). Charles Martin collaborated with his two nieces and grandniece and was instrumental in forming the fiery canoe foundation. He passed away from cancer in April, 2022.