Dr. Heather

Dr. Heather Lebrun came to Kauaʻi in January 2002, first teaching at Kapaʻa High School and joining Dr. B’s 1st outer-island teaching cohort to obtain her teaching credential. After taking the largest contingent of Close-Up students to Washington, D.C. in state history, predominantly with marginalized (at-risk) students, her principal moved her to work specifically with those students experiencing behavior issues on campus. She ran two Alternative Learning Center programs for Kauaʻi and Kapaʻa High Schools, re-branding the programs and taking students on trips around the globe. From her work, and while living in Anahola with four generations of Kānaka ʻŌiwi, she founded a special school program specifically for Hawaiian Homelands students who dropped out of school. This program combined job training, cultural skills, and addiction counseling from Hawaiian and local practitioners in order to equip her haumana for life on the islands. She also supported the work of Kūkulu Kumuhana O Anahola long-term.

In 2010, Heather traveled to the Middle East to serve an internship at a legal foundation working to protect trafficked persons, followed by a full scholarship to work with Bedouin women under the 1st female Bedouin professor in the Negev Desert. She won a full scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, collaborating with Kānaka Maoli women leaders from Kauaʻi on issues of land tenure, sovereignty, and the next generation.

Dr. Lebrun taught university students multiple classes in History and Land and Food Systems as a Graduate Teaching Associate. She also substitute taught K-12 in British Columbia at both public and Indigenous schools. Early in her career, she also taught as an Outdoor Education Teacher in the California Outdoor School System.

Heather has three daughters, two cats, and a wonderful French Canadian husband, who is also a veteran teacher. She adores her former students, whom she considers ʻohana, and is committed to them for their entire lives.