The center of the universe for a young Jessica Kaʻiulani Hilo was a wholesale flower shop in San Francisco that specialized in tropical, Hawaiʻi-grown plants. The business, Hilo Inc., was established by her Kanaka Maoli grandfather and passed down to her father, Lance Hilo, and his siblings.
There, Hilo did her part by hauling flora, making lei and filling buckets. The spot in the historic San Francisco flower market not only developed her work ethic; it also imbued her with a sense of being Hawaiian.
She watched her makuakāne build a network of Bay Area Kānaka, serving local hālau hula through the late 1980s until the store shuttered in the mid-1990s.
“This small shop in the wholesale flower district in San Francisco was kind of the footprint for my identity,” Hilo said. “For being in the diaspora, I very much lucked out in still being very connected to the culture.”
Hilo, now 42, has established a successful career in media, having worked at powerhouse outlets such as CBS Interactive, NBC News and USA TODAY. The Los Angeles resident found that her strength lies in intertwining her career goals with her Kānaka identity.
“Journalism is part of our culture,” Hilo said, referring to the plethora of Native Hawaiian newspapers – numbering over 100,000 pages – that were published by Kānaka Maoli writers between 1834 and 1948. “That is [often] forgotten.”
Born in Burlingame, California, Hilo is the eldest of three children. Her father claims Kānaka Maoli roots from both of his parents, plus Chinese and Japanese on his mother’s side. Hilo’s mom, Marcia Rapozo-Hilo, was raised by her Austrian Jewish mother who was displaced by World War II. Her Kauaʻi-born father was a descendant of Portuguese plantation workers.
Beginning at age 4, Hilo learned hula under nā Kumu Hula Esther Correa and Renee Price of Hālau Hula ʻo Kuʻuleinani in San Mateo. For the next 14 years, she regularly performed and competed at continent-based festivals like Iā ʻOe E Ka Lā Hula Competition and Festival. Hilo recalls long days and demanding practices.
Other interests blossomed, too. In fourth grade, Hilo began playing saxophone, and she added ʻOri Tahiti to her middle school routine. After watching an episode of the TV series Matlock, Hilo set her sights on becoming a lawyer. She also served as the editor-in-chief of her middle school’s newspaper.
As a teenager, Hilo took advanced placement classes at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, and joined mock trial. She also played soccer, swam on the varsity team, and continued to dance hula, earning a scholarship worth one year of hālau tuition when her family fell on hard times.
For a child from a working class ʻohana, academics were Hilo’s key to success. Though she excelled at math, she was enamored with history and English. “You can see the connective tissue between that and journalism,” she quipped.
After graduating in 2001, she attended University of California, Santa Barbara. Hilo pursued a double major in political science, with an emphasis in international relations, and English, plus a minor in music.
But by the end of college, she was disenchanted with her legal aspirations. In a mock Congress class, she assumed the role of a journalist and unlocked a new passion. When she graduated in 2005, she was faced with a decision: enroll in a graduate program in English literature or focus on freelance writing?
Freelance journalism won. At first, Hilo was “writing for beer money,” publishing stories with local news outlets. She supplemented her income with a job at the Santa Barbara Symphony.
During that season of her life Hilo met her future husband, Matthew Andersen, at a party in 2008.
Soon afterwards, she enrolled in a master’s degree program focused on specialized journalism at the University of Southern California finishing in 2010. Later that year, she wrote stories for Patch.com, a local news platform, which took her to Connecticut for a three-month internship.
After returning to the West Coast, Hilo was hired in 2012 by Yahoo! as a content producer and social media editor. The following year, she secured a role in media outside of journalism at CBS Interactive. Hilo spent four years producing live social and digital events, leading marketing campaigns and creating editorial content.
Galvanized by the state of the press and democracy, in 2017 Hilo pivoted joining NBC News as a social media editor. She rose through the ranks and became the senior manager of social programming and specials in 2021. Hilo led the coverage of historic events like presidential elections and spearheaded DEI initiatives, which helped her reconnect with her Kānaka identity.
Often, she was the only Native Hawaiian in the newsroom. “We’re just not there,” Hilo said about those spaces. “It’s so hard to find that community.”
Beyond her professional ventures, Hilo was growing her family. She married Matthew in 2017. Their eldest son, Clifford, was born in 2020, followed by Charles in 2023.
Following layoffs at NBC in 2024, Hilo was hired by USA TODAY as the deputy managing editor of social. That year, she also founded Nā Lei Hilo, a monthly newsletter and digital community that strives to connect Kānaka in the diaspora.
In 2025, Hilo found herself drawn to academia after teaching a semester course in public relations at Santa Barbara City College. Today, in addition to publishing Nā Lei Hilo, she works as a part-time lecturer on cross-cultural journalism at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Returning to Hawaiʻi someday feels like a colossal decision to Hilo, but she’s open to it, particularly as she dives further into her genealogy. “I’ve been listening more to my ancestors,” she said. “Now, I have the bandwidth to really hear them when they’re saying hello.”
This article is reprinted with permission from OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Combining Career and Kuleana on the Continent" by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, in its April 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 4. Read more at kawaiola.news.
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