Deputy Assistant Secretary Keone Nakoa and Senior Advisor Betsy Hildebrandt Join Interior’s Insular Affairs Team

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) is pleased to acknowledge that two new political appointees have joined the leadership team for the Office of Insular Affairs. The Biden-Harris administration has appointed Keone Nakoa of Hawai’i as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs and Betsy Hildebrandt of Virginia as the new Senior Advisor for Insular Areas to the Assistant Secretary.

“The territories are an integral part of the fabric of America, and the freely associated states, while independent countries, are uniquely interwoven with the United States in terms of a shared history, ongoing partnership, and a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Keone Nakoa. “I look forward to working with the OIA team and leadership from the insular areas to fulfill our trust and insular responsibilities through efforts to strengthen economic and health capacities in the territories, fulfill Compact of Free Association obligations, and address climate resilience, conservation, and clean energy deployment.”

“I am honored to join the Office of Insular Affairs, which has an important role to play in facilitating and upholding the federal government’s interrelationship with each of the insular areas,” said Betsy Hildebrandt. “The Biden-Harris administration has made clear its priorities to strengthen insular economies through strategic investments in environmental justice activities, clean energy deployment, and infrastructure improvement, while also restoring trust with territorial communities and ensuring sovereignty means something in supporting and working with the freely associated states.”

As announced earlier by the Department of the Interior, Keone Nakoa joins Interior from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs where he worked with Congress and federal agencies as the Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Keone previously served as speechwriter for the late Senator Daniel Akaka, clerk for the Chief Judge of the Hawai‘i Intermediate Court of Appeals, and as a lawyer at a private firm in Honolulu. He holds J.D. and MBA degrees from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a bachelor’s degree in biological anthropology from Harvard University. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, he is part Native Hawaiian and lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Stephanie.

Betsy Hildebrandt returns to the Interior Department after serving in a variety of roles between 2009 and 2020 as both a political appointee and a career employee in the Office of the Secretary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Her contributions have primarily focused on management and strategic communications. In her more than 30-year career, Betsy has worked on Capitol Hill and the private and non-profit sectors. Betsy and her husband, Kevin Varney, have two children.

More information about the Office of Insular Affairs can be found on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs website at https://www.doi.gov/oia/who-we-are/oia-office.

The Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, @InsularAffairs, and the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) carry out the Secretary of the Interior’s responsibilities for the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Additionally, OIA administers and oversees federal assistance under the Compacts of Free Association to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. Follow and “like” OIA on Facebook and subscribe to the OIA YouTube Channel.

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