Champions of Change
Kim Coco Iwamoto, a certified therapeutic foster parent, was elected to Hawaii’s State Board of Education in 2006 and re-elected in 2010. During her time in office, Commissioner Iwamoto was able to implement many of the policy recommendations of the Department of Education’s Safe School Community Advisory Committee, and in 2011, she drafted the Hawaii Safe Schools Act, which gave the legislature and the governor an opportunity to join the effort to reduce bullying and harassment in public schools. The bill was signed into law later that year. In 2012, Commissioner Iwamoto was appointed and confirmed to the Hawaii State Civil Rights Commission.