When environmental scientist Julie Hong was last at the state Senate, it wasn’t to provide testimony on climate change—it was to find out more information on human trafficking. Hong’s testimony was in favor of a bill that would require the state to maintain a database aggregating information on sex trafficking from the various organizations dedicated to fighting the issue here in Hawai‘i.

While Hong’s primary function as a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton is managing the company’s infrastructure, energy, environmental and data science business in the Pacific Rim, she found out about the issue of human trafficking in Hawai‘i and had to take action. “We wanted to find a data science project in which we’re doing something to benefit society and do social good,” Hong says. “We couldn’t turn a blind eye to what was happening in our own backyard.”

Hong’s work in anti-human trafficking is a voluntary effort, and her company has been utilizing its initiatives in data science training and strategic communications to provide nonprofit organizations with statistics on the issue’s local impact. “When we think of trafficking, we think of Thailand, the Philippines, the women coming here and getting trafficked—and that is true, in some cases—but the majority are already here,” Hong says. “Several of those impacted are Native Hawaiians.”

Hong has also been working to empower women in the energy sector as one of the five original members of Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE), a nonprofit organization that hosts a monthly forum on topics relevant to the energy industry. Founded in 2013 by Dawn Lippert, president and CEO of Elemental Excelerator, the group has grown to 300 strong, with partner organizations and other chapters emerging in Canada, Armenia and Maui. “Whenever we went to conferences and symposiums on energy, it was the men who were dominating the conversation,” Hong says. “We felt that we didn’t really have a voice. We wanted to have a safe place for women to talk freely.”

WiRE has since become a valuable resource for job seekers as well as a vehicle to elevate capacity building and professional development. And it’s opened other doors, too—government agencies that typically don’t collaborate or share information freely have sought out members and past panelists thanks to relationships formed through WiRE.

 

“There’s a lot of brain drain. We’re trying to figure out how to keep students here instead of going back to the mainland.”

 

Through funding from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, WiRE has also begun providing scholarships for training opportunities and to send attendees to the annual C3E Women in Clean Energy Symposium. “We’re trying to get women involved in STEM at a very young age,” Hong says. “There’s a lot of brain drain, where students get all of their education here and then leave because they think they can’t get jobs here. We’re trying to figure out how to keep the students who come out of UH, HPU and the other universities here instead of going back to the mainland.”

One way Booz Allen Hamilton is working to foster local talent is through the company’s summer internship program. Students are divided into two teams and presented with a number of client-focused challenges over the course of 10 weeks. The teams receive mentorship from the company and compete against other teams of interns in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Washington D.C., San Antonio, San Diego and other offices. Many of the interns eventually end up working for the company.

Hong is also proud of Booz Allen Hamilton’s diversity initiative, which earned the company a top-25 spot on Forbes’ 2018 list of the country’s best employers for diversity. For nine years running, Booz Allen Hamilton has also earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index, which ranks the nation’s best places to work for LGBTQ equality.

“When I first got here, the demographics were more homogeneous, but now there’s a lot more diversity of gender, race and thought,” Hong says. “We are really pushing for diversity and see the strength in it, which makes us unstoppable. Statistics indicate that the most financially successful companies have diverse leadership teams. That’s something I know other companies say they do, but we are actually doing things that are meaningful.”

Having lived in both the mainland U.S. and Korea, Hong fell in love with Hawai‘i’s unique, vibrant and diverse community. “Growing up first in Pennsylvania and then in Virginia and the D.C. area, I was always a minority, no matter what,” Hong says. “When I came to Korea, I still felt like a minority because I could speak the language, but not that well. I think people just looked at me and realized I wasn’t from there by the way I dressed, talked or acted, and so I always felt like an outsider.”

Hong originally intended to stay in Hawai‘i for a year—enough time to replicate the environmental programs she had helped build for multiple U.S. air bases in Korea—but one year quickly turned into 14. “I came here and thought, ‘Wow! These people look just like me, they talk like me and act like me.’” Hong says. “I really felt I was finally at home here, and I learned how to lead my life with aloha.”