Meet your volunteers for the VHCA Board:

VHCA Fiscal Year 2020-2021 VHCA Board

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Debra Smith, President. Long time resident/farmer in the Farm Lots section of the subdivision with a home still standing but no access. She is a retired Radiologic Technologist who has been active in community work.
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Betty Oberman, Vice President. We purchased our home in Vacationland April 2000. 2003 I became secretary of KKWA Kapoho Kai Water Association. I am currently vice president. During my 21yrs. I became our Mailbox Coordinator and Neighborhood Watch. Mahalo Jan Anderson. I am a retired Realtor of 30yrs: 10yrs Big Island, started in Salt Lake City. I was a Property Manager in Park City Ut. Had a degree in Hotel Management specialized in Tourism. I am currently involved in VHCA and KKWA. I continue to support us via Lower Puna Rising.
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Eric Cockcroft, Director. Property owner in Farm lots with a home still standing but no access. He is a retired teacher who raised three children in the community and coached sports. He sat on multiple boards throughout his seventeen years as a founding teacher at the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Sciences Public Charter School.
James (Beau) Seagraves, Director. Jim (Beau) is a computer technology expert with time spent in software engineering and management.  He has worked for HP, Compaq, DEC and AT&T Bell Labs.  Jim’s experiences include administration of large groups of computer systems, software app development, enterprise email and web development, GIS and performance and computer security. His educational experiences include an MBA/Innovation and New Product Development from UNH, Masters in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence from Stevens Institute and Bachelors in Computer Science and Statistics from the University of Delaware.
Jim has participated in an early effort to analyze the restoration effort of Vacationland’s roads.  Primarily looking at and mapping out the USGS LIDAR data he has overlaid VHCA’s old road system on the current lava topology found at Kapoho.   He has analyzed the USGS data and made a first estimate on VHCA’s rough road elevations, the size of lava grading project and cost for rough road restoration. Jim has flown with Janet Marshall and Eileen O’Hara over the current lava fields of Farm lots and House Lots to visually confirm the information that was in the USGS project.  From the overflight of the area, Jim believes that the VHCA road and lot restoration work is very doable because the vast majority of lava found throughout the VHCA area is `a`a lava.  In addition, the eruption has created a series of new beaches in front of VHCA and KBC that could become part of a new county or state beach park.
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Jim Lehner, Treasurer. Property owner in the House lots.   He is a long time VHCA/KKWA board member who has overseen the Association’s road and water system work and has been heavily involved with both associations since 2005. He obtained much road and airfield construction experience while serving in Vietnam (RVN) with combat engineers. After RVN he was employed by a construction engineering firm in Portland, Oregon and then worked for 26 years with a titanium company in Oregon mostly composing titanium formulations for industry, primarily aircraft while guiding production techniques for these materials. 
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Tara J. Plachowski, Secretary. Co-owner of 2 House Lots. Educator and researcher. Previously she was a teacher educator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa. Tara holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.A. in Educational Leadership and Administration from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Teacher Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is happy to apply her experience in grant writing and administration to the recovery efforts for VHCA.
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Diane Franciosa, Director. A lover of Puna since relocating from Boston area to Kapoho Vacationland in 2014 I am happy to be part VHCA Board. Daughter of an Army colonel and mother of 2 great kids, I internalize service to community  also currently serving on the Boards of  Pahoa's Malama O Puna, Lower Puna Rising and Big Island United Way.  I lost a rental home in Vacationland but I still own several properties along highway 137 'red road' and am committed to seeing full recovery for Lower Puna.  I believe in the power of unity; together anything is possible.​