She began in journalism working on the Daily Pinion at McKinley High School, then one of a handful of high school dailies. She earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in journalism and political science at the University of Hawaii, where she edited the student newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawaii. After a year on a Rotary International journalism fellowship in England, Viotti began work in community journalism at the Sun Press/Midweek weekly papers (Midweek is now part of Oahu Publications Inc., which owns the Star-Advertiser).
She covered news and features at The Honolulu Advertiser, with a particular focus on covering Hawaiian issues and concerns of Hawaii's varied ethnic communities. The migrating into editorial writing, which she has continued since the newspapers combined to become the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 2010. Local and national politics, as well as social-service issues, remain principal interests.
Viotti is an active member of the Society of Professional Journalists. She is married with a grown daughter, pursuing hobbies in music, theater, books and technology.
Terrence “Terry” Walsh moved back to Oahu last fall to take over as chief executive officer and president of Catholic Charities of Hawaii, after holding a similiar post at the social service agency’s West Michigan operation, as well as overseeing its immigration services in that state and New Jersey. Read more
Mateo Caballero, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, is watching the national debate over immigration and refugees with more than academic interest. Read more
Karen Lee has assembled a lot of data points to support the push for Early College, a program in which high school students earn tuition-free credits toward both their diplomas and a future college degree. Read more
Maenette Benham has had two chances that come along rarely in education, capping a career of teaching and administration, at the K-12 and college levels. Read more
Almost immediately upon becoming director of the state Ethics Commission, Daniel Gluck landed in the midst of a hot ethics battle that had been at the boiling point for some time: the commission’s dispute with the teachers’ union over accepting free travel for school trips. Read more
Honolulu is not alone with its struggle to accommodate unconventional accommodations in its tourism sector. Read more
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There are two kinds of legitimacy, as far as vacation rentals are concerned: complying with taxpaying duties, and abiding by land use laws. Read more
Hoang, 41, came out on top of a nationwide search for Hawaii’s first chief information security officer, said his boss, Todd Nacapuy, the state chief information officer. Read more
Rowena Akana, newly elected to chair the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees, is no stranger to conflict in her 26 years on the board for the agency that manages the Native Hawaiian Trust Fund. Read more
There have been tremors felt through the Hawaiian-rights landscape lately, surely portents of change ahead in 2017 and beyond. Read more
Tammi Oyadomari-Chun is surrounded by planning documents and charts with data and a calendar of meetings that has taken her around the state finalizing the Department ofEducation strategic plan. Read more
Weeks before the Black Friday crowds were to show up at Ka Makana Alii, Rich Hartline knew they’d be there in force. The tip-off was the throngs of people who turned out for the grand opening more than a month earlier. Read more
As new, luxury glass highrises in Kakaako open for residents, Stanford Carr is seen as the builder for the other end of the income spectrum. Read more
Most of the state is wondering, fretfully, how the advent of the Donald Trump presidency will affect Hawaii, which if anything became even more solidly Democratic in the age ofRepublican control in Washington, D.C. Read more
Kahi Pacarro grew up near the Ala Wai Canal and, like so many of Hawaii’s youth, paddled up and down its length with his canoe club. And like most of them, he knew better than to let too much of the water splash on his skin. Read more
Matthew Gonser, extension agent for the Sea Grant College Program at the University of Hawaii, knows the bar is set high for the student design challenge he’s overseeing. Justconsider its title: “Make the Ala Wai Awesome.” Read more
Jose Fajardo has weathered the first storm of any public radio general manager: the semiannual pledge drive. Read more
Dr. Randall Holcombe, 59, looks out over an appealing shoreline vista from his new office as director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. The researchers he hopes to attract will find it appealing, too, he said. Read more
Judy Mohr Peterson has sat at the helm of Medicaid programs in two states that had, as she calls it, a “rocky” start of the program expansion when the Affordable Care Act was launched. Read more
Hawaii’s health care policymakers are looking at 2017, when a new waiver from federal law could take effect, as the year things might get a bit rosier. Read more
Federal authorities are now reviewing an application from Gov. David Ige’s administration to grant Hawaii a waiver from provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Read more
