Barbara Tanabe (MBA '83 Mānoa) is owner and managing partner of Ho'ākea Communications, a Hawai'i public affairs company. She has 30 years' experience in communications, public affairs, crisis and issues management, and broadcast journalism in the U.S. and Asia. Tanabe was previously president and CEO of the PR firm Hill & Knowlton Hawaii/Communications Pacific. She also formed her own consulting company and was the first woman to chair the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. Tanabe has the distinction of being one of the first Asian-American women in TV news in the U.S., and she received an Emmy for the 1971 documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The Washington Press Club Foundation selected her for its oral history project on pioneer women, and she is also featured in the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Tanabe is actively involved in community and civic organizations and has been volunteering at UH since 1974.
