Hilda Cathy Heine is a Marshallese educator and politician who has served 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 doctorate degree, and the founder of the women's rights group Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI).
Heine in 2022
President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, H.E. Hilda C. Heine walking through the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery 12 September 2017.
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 coral atolls and five islands, divided across two island chains: Ratak in the east and Ralik in the west. 97.87% of its territory is water, the largest proportion of water to land of any sovereign state. The country shares maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and the Federated States of Micronesia to the west. The capital and largest city is Majuro, home to approximately half of the country's population.
Marshall Islanders sailing, with sails brailed (reefed), c. 1899–1900
Manila Galleon in the Marianas and Carolines, c. 1590 Boxer Codex
Offices of the Pacific Navigation Co. at Jaluit Atoll in the late 1880s
German colonial administration building at Jaluit Atoll in 1886