With one year under her belt leading the Maui Economic Development Board, Leslie Wilkins says she’s honored to continue the nonprofit’s work alongside her “strong team and strong board,” in advancing business development, STEM education and convening people to discuss the economic future for the island and state.

Wilkins took over for Jeanne Unemori Skog, who led the organization supported by the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye before stepping down in June 2017. Skog was the head for 18 years.

Wilkins served as a longtime vice president under Skog.

“I have had wonderful support in that transition from my predecessor as well as our board,” Wilkins said.

In her first year, Wilkins has to deal with the “dynamic federal landscape,” which is closely monitored because the nonprofit relies on what she called a patchwork of federal, state, county and private funding for its programs.

The presidential budget was austere in certain areas the nonprofit is invested in, including education, labor, science, technology and clean energy. But Wilkins said Congress restored “quite a bit of that” funding, and she continues to monitor the federal landscape.

And last week, Wilkins and her staff were thrown another challenge with Hurricane Lane. They had come up with several different contingency plans for their annual signature fundraising dinner scheduled for last Saturday. Eventually, Wilkins announced the postponement of the fundraiser to keep guests, students, volunteers and staff safe.

The Ke Alahele Education Fund Benefit Dinner & Auction has been rescheduled for this Saturday and will be at its original location at the Grand Wailea. Reception and silent auction is at 4:30 p.m., followed by dinner and live auction at 6 p.m.

There are limited tickets still available. For information, call 875-2300.

The annual event gives the organization “golden, unrestricted funds” for its Ke Alahele Education Fund, Wilkins said.

Having unrestricted funds is important because, Wilkins said, about 80 percent of the funding the agency receives is project-based, meaning it’s for specific projects. Unrestricted funds can go toward funding Neighbor Island and even Mainland trips for successful school robotics teams along with computers for school media rooms, and to support the Maui County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, among others.

Officials are expecting at least 500 guests. Students will be featured, showcasing their robotics and creative media projects. MEDB has 32 different STEM programs. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The STEM programs range from those for elementary students to people entering or even already in their careers.

MEDB was created in 1982 by community, business and elected leaders to diversify the county’s economy. At the time, the island was dependent on agriculture and tourism.

Work has been done and continues to be done with public, private and nonprofit partners to build homegrown solutions to countywide problems, the board’s website reports. Priority is given to the community’s environmental and cultural values as education is transformed and a workforce is prepared for new technology.

MEDB is located at the Maui Research & Technology Park in Kihei where it is a tenant and owns its own building. It leases space in its building to help offset costs. Some of its tenants include the Pacific Disaster Center and Akimeka.

As Wilkins takes on challenges in her first year, she is seeing new programs and success as well.

About a year and a half ago, MEDB convened a Maui County Health Care Partnership. In it, health care professionals discussed the industry’s needs and how to strengthen the health care sector. The partnership’s focus is on finding where the gaps in health care are, along with looking at various jobs in career pathways as opportunities for youth.

She said there is a need to assist aging baby boomers and helping young people understand there is “much opportunity in career pathways in health care.”

And launching this fall is career awareness building, where there will be people in the medical industry speaking to students and there will be opportunities for students to conduct job shadowing.

Students reached in this program will include those in middle and high schools and involve the Health Occupations Students of America programs.

Also new is MEDB’s Women in Technology’s STEM initiative, which began last year, joining Code.org as a Hawaii regional partner.

Code.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities, according to MEDB.

With the partnership, local teachers sign up for Code.org’s professional learning program, which helps them teach new computer science curricula in their middle and high schools.

According to the latest statistics, computing occupations are now the number one source of all new wages in the U.S. and make up two-thirds of all projected new jobs in STEM fields, making computer science one of the most in-demand college degrees, a news release said.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.