Jill Kehaulani Esch, Ombudsperson

Jill Kehaulani (Kay-HOW-La-Knee) Esch is Native Hawaiian and was born and raised in Hawaii. She is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She and her husband moved from Hawaii to Minnesota in 2000 so that she could attend William Mitchell College of Law, now known as Mitchell Hamline School of Law. In 2013, she was appointed the Ombudsperson for American Indian Families and then reappointed in 2021 when the new agency was created by the Minnesota Legislature.

Previously, she worked in a small Hawaii law firm for 24 years; after law school she was a judicial law clerk to Judge John Q. McShane and an associate attorney in Duluth for several years. She is an active member of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA); in 2017, she received its Member of the Year Award. She has been an active member of the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association since 2000 when she was in law school and later served on the Board once she became an attorney. Since 2017, she has served as Co-Chair of the Children and Families Chapter for the United States Ombudsman Association and is an Ex Officio Member of the Board.

Investigator

The Investigator position is in the process of being filled.