Hilda Heine

Hilda Cathy Heine (born 6 April 1951) is a Marshallese educator and politician who has been serving as the president of the Marshall Islands since 2024, having previously served from 2016 to 2020. Prior to assuming office, she served as the Minister of Education. She was the first individual from the Marshall Islands to earn a doctoral degree, and the founder of the women's rights group Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI).

Heine is the first woman to hold the presidency of the Marshall Islands. In 2016 she was also the first female president of any Micronesian country, and only the fourth woman to serve as head of government for any independent nation in Oceania (following Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark of New Zealand and Julia Gillard of Australia).

Early life and education
Heine was born on 6 April 1951 in Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands. She is the granddaughter of Carl Heine, an Australian-born Congregationalist missionary who married a Marshallese woman and was executed by the Japanese during World War II. She attended college in the United States where she earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon in 1970. She earned a master's degree at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1975 and an educational doctorate at the University of Southern California in 2004.

She received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Fu Jen Catholic University in 2019.

Career
Heine worked at Marshall Islands High School in Majuro from 1975 through 1982, serving both as a classroom teacher and as a counselor. In 2000, Heine founded Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI), a women's rights group. Since 2005, she had been Pacific Resources for Education and Learning's (PREL) Director at the Pacific Comprehensive Assistance Center. Heine participated in the 2009 with the Pacific Islands Climate Change Education Partnership. She has also been associated with the Leadership Pacific Advisory Board, the Commission on Education in Micronesia, and the Human Resources in Health Task Force.

Representing Aur Atoll in the Nitijeļā (Legislature), she became Minister of Education.

In January 2016 Aelon Kein Ad member Casten Nemra was elected as President of the Marshall Islands. Shortly afterwards Heine along with former Minister Thomas Heine and Wilbur Heine withdrew their support of Nemra and defected to the opposition. The decision was made after Thomas was not offered a positioned in the cabinet of Nemra. Nemra was shortly afterwards removed from office in a vote of no confidence, having been in office for only two weeks. Heine was chosen as the replacement candidate by the opposition. On 27 January 2016, as sole candidate, she received 24 votes with six abstaining and three absent from the 33 members of the Nitijeļā. Heine was sworn into office as President of the Marshall Islands on 28 January 2016. She became the first woman to hold the position.

On 12 November 2018, Heine survived a vote of no confidence with the outcome in votes being 16-16, falling short of the 17 votes needed. Heine and Kitlang Kabua, were the only two women elected in the 2019 Marshallese general election. On 6 January 2020, she lost her bid for re-election in a 12-20 vote against David Kabua.

Heine was Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific (USP) from 1 July 2019 to 12 January 2020. On 12 November 2021, the USP Council elected her as Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council for a three-year term beginning 1 January 2022.

She served as an advisor for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference but resigned after the first day after reports surfaced that conference president Sultan Al Jaber would use the conference to make oil and gas deals.

After the 2023 Marshallese general election, Heine was re-elected as President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands on 2 January 2024. She was sworn in the next day.

Personal life
She is a mother of four. In February 2016, she appointed two of her sons, Wilbur Heine and Thomas Heine, as cabinet ministers. Her daughter is the poet and activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner.