MEDIA RELEASE

Gov. Neil Abercrombie recently appointed Serafin P. “Jun” Colmenares, Jr. as the executive director of the Office of Language Access (OLA). OLA was established to improve state and state-funded services to immigrants with limited English proficiency.

“Jun Colmenares has been a tireless advocate in our community to create a bridge with government and immigrants,” Abercrombie said. “With Jun’s leadership, we will continue to address the challenges immigrants face and create solutions to ensure everyone has equal access to our state services and programs.”

OLA provides oversight and central coordination of state agencies, as well as technical assistance to state agencies and covered entities in their respective implementation of language access requirements.

OLA also monitors and reviews state agencies for compliance with the law and investigates complaints of language access violations using informal methods.

The Office is administratively attached to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Colmenares has served as the executive director since 2007. Prior to that, he worked as an evaluation analyst for the state’s Executive Office on Aging. Colmenares previously worked as program officer for health at the Hawaii Community Foundation and utilization review analyst with Hawaii Medical Services Association.

He also served as a bilingual health worker at the Lanakila Easy Access Project, job resource specialist and case manager with Catholic Charities Immigrant Services, and interpreter with Bilingual Access Line of Helping Hands Hawaii.

Colmenares’ academic career included stints as a lecturer of political science at Chaminade University and Leeward Community College, and several positions at Mindanao State University in the Philippines, including chair of the Department of Political Science and assistant and acting dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities.

He also conducted research at the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii and at the Population Institute of the East-West Center.

Colmenares is actively involved in various Filipino community organizations in Hawaii, including the Filipino Community Center, the Congress of Visayan Organizations, the Filipino Coalition for Solidarity, and the Philippine Celebrations Coordinating Committee of Hawaii.

Colmenares holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Hawaii, a Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from the University of Delhi in India, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Mindanao State University.