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Photo: Kylie Flood with Hawaiʻi State Librarian Stacey Aldrich and Governor Josh Green. Photo courtesy of Gov.Flickr.

Kylie Kaʻeo Flood was honored as the Employee of the Year for the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System (HSPLS) at the Governor’s Award Ceremony on September 24, 2024. Kylie is the Hawaiian/ Pacific and Adult Librarian at the Nānākuli Public Library. She is a 2016 alumna of the UHM LIS Program. This annual award spotlights individuals “who embody the spirit of service and commitment that make public libraries vital to the community.”  Kylie says that the award also recognizes the value of having a “wonderful team” at Nānākuli. She is grateful for head librarian Kelsey Domingo‘s supportive leadership as well as the entire staff’s collaborative approach to programs and services.

It was always Kylie’s dream to work in her community of Nānākuli. While still a student in LIS, she and her colleague Michiko Joseph, a librarian at UH West Oʻahu, envisioned a genealogy project that would meet the needs of the Nānākuli Hawaiian Homestead community. Kylie indicated that this community represents the densest Native Hawaiian population in the state. 

When Kylie officially joined the library staff six years ago, the genealogy program became a reality. She said, “Knowing where you come from is a very important part of Hawaiian culture.” 

Since 2018, Kylie has facilitated a series of workshops and meetings that deal with family research and genealogy. With support from UH West Oʻahu, the initiative invites a range of professionals to share their skills and knowledge with the Native Hawaiian community. According to Kylie, guests have included university students studying the land deed issues as well as historians, archivists, and cultural experts from Alu Like, Bishop Museum, and the Hawaiʻi State Archives. During the pandemic, the in-person presentations became virtual sessions hosted on the channel. This dramatically widened the program’s outreach to individuals across the state. 

Kylie’s future plans include sponsoring webinars that feature Darcie Hind Posz, a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists. Posz has published a volume entitled Research in Hawaii that focuses on ​resources available in-person ​and online for those whose ​ancestral families resided in ​Hawai‘i from Kingdom to ​Territory to Statehood.