Oka’s commitment to the Mount Desert Island community brought her to nonprofit work in MDI Hospital’s Office of Advancement in 2013. Her ability to forge meaningful connections and partnerships and drive improvement and innovation led her to the Director of Advancement role in 2022.

A skilled Advancement professional, she has led a variety of successful donor and community initiatives, drawing on her local roots, event management and communications experience. An award-winning journalist and photographer, she has served as Public Affairs Officer, Communications Director and Interim Director of Advancement since joining the organization.

Under her leadership, the Office of Advancement expanded to provide critical philanthropic and communications support, and the organization’s annual fundraising event, which she helped establish, set a new record with more than $400K raised.  She also successfully led the organization’s COVID-19 communications, dedicating countless hours to innovative public outreach efforts around testing, vaccination and education.

Before joining MDI Hospital, Oka worked in events management and catering for clients across MDI. She also worked for news and feature publications in Maine, Oregon and North Carolina including the Mount Desert Islander, the Ellsworth American, the Raleigh News and Observer and Oregon’s Future Magazine.

She holds a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Journalism with a concentration in Advertising and minors in English & Sociology from the University of Maine in Orono and has completed graduate coursework at Emerson College in Boston.

When she’s not at work, she enjoys spending time at her camp on Donnell Pond with family and friends, walking, boating and hiking with her two dachshunds, and traveling, cooking and reading.