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Teacher leadership and agency can provide time sensitive, trusted information during times of uncertainty. A Native Hawaiian teacher’s place and culture-based COVID-19 lessons inspired a multidisciplinary team funded by NSF and NIH to develop four place-based, culturally responsive COVID-19 curricular modules. Educator-led outreach via in-person and online presentations was coupled with a project website that provided K-12 educators with independent learning to support teaching of COVID-19 in the contexts of: 1) historical epidemics in Hawai’i, 2) student inquiry into family health, 3) protection and prevention, and 4) vaccines, variants, and disinformation. Major findings include high ratings from Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander educators, increased downloads of modules following outreach, selection of Module I History of Infectious Diseases in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as most valuable, and high engagement of elementary teachers. Teachers were most concerned about students mental health and disinformation. Those who taught the curriculum gave higher rating to leadership and governance in their schools and communities and were most interested in professional development as public health educators. Findings suggest that place-, culture-, and inquiry-based curriculum and professional development situated in students’ lives and communities has the potential to support teachers as public health leaders and communicators during times of change and uncertainty.