The state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism has established a Military and Community Relations Office, which will focus on effective collaboration and transparency among Hawaii, county governments, the community and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The office was made possible through a $3.2 million grant from the DoD Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, awarded to DBEDT in October.

Following a DBEDT search process, Laurie Moore and John Greene were selected as executive director and deputy director, respectively.

Moore most recently served as Armed Services YMCA Hawaii executive director, where she led Hawaii’s oldest nonprofit organization, serving military members and their dependents at 13 different sites on Oahu. Moore also has served as director of the Palmyra Program for The Nature Conservancy and director of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund for the USS Arizona Memorial.

Greene has been serving as the defense industry specialist within the DBEDT Business Development and Support Division where he established the Hawaii Defense Alliance, a collaboration among government, industry, community resource partners and DoD representatives focused on increasing local business participation in the defense sector of Hawaii’s economy.

Moore and Greene will begin serving in their new positions on Monday.