Chancellor’s tribute to UH Hilo award-winning leader, Kaʻiu Kimura: “She leads with kindness”
The Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce bestowed the 2026 Athena Leadership Award to the director of UH Hilo’s Hawaiian language college at a luncheon this week.
By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories.
Kaʻiu Kimura, director of Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, officially received her 2026 Athena Leadership Award from the Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. The local award originates from Athena International, a non-profit organization that empowers women, girls, and allies worldwide to develop inclusive leadership through programs and opportunities. The award was announced earlier this month but the official ceremonies took place January 20 at a luncheon hosted by the chamber.
Kimura was named director of the university’s Hawaiian language college in 2023. She is long-standing executive director at UH Hilo’s ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, a position she retains while serving as director of the college. A graduate of Kamehameha Schools, she received her bachelor of arts and master of arts in Hawaiian language and literature from UH Hilo and is currently a candidate in the university’s Indigenous language revitalization doctoral program.
- Read full story on Kaʻiu Kimura’s accomplishments.
Kimura was nominated for the award by UH Hilo Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin. The following is Chancellor Irwin’s introductory remarks at the event on Tuesday.
A number of remarkable people work at UH Hilo, and we are fortunate to have them among us on campus and here in the community. Many remarkable people are UH Hilo alumni. Our guest of honor today belongs to both groups.
When it came time for me to nominate someone for the Athena Award, Kaʻiu immediately came to mind as the best candidate. Past president of both the Japanese Chamber and our Hawaiʻi Island Chamber, executive director of the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, interim director of Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani (College of Hawaiian Language).
Patrice Buckner Jackson defines four factors that combine to create each person’s individual brilliance: Training, Talent, Identity, and Passion. I will not recite all the impressive training that Kaʻiu as received or her many talents, but I do want to say a few things about her identity and passion.
Kaʻiu Kimura leads with kindness and a quiet modesty. She gets things done, but she does not seek the limelight. Indeed, she was a reluctant nominee for the Athena Award, but I convinced her that it would be good for the university if she let me nominate her.
She approaches the work with optimism, steadfastness, and kindness. When I first arrived at UH Hilo, she offered to show me the Hawaiian immersion pathway. We visited Pūnana Leo, Nāwahī, Ka Haka ʻUla and ʻImiloa. Thus, Ka Haka ʻUla and ʻImiloa were on my radar in greater detail than the other units on campus — good work! This invitation also identified Kaʻiu’s passion to me — the Hawaiian language revitalization movement, into which she pours her heart and soul, even making time to answer the occasional ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi question from her boss.
At a time when some families think their student will do better to seek education off island, Kaʻiu stands as a sterling example of a locally educated and invested professional in our community. She is indeed a great leader.
In addition, Chancellor Irwin also delivered a lighthearted (yet profound) AI generated bio in the style of Dr. Seuss:
In the town of Hilo, where the raindrops go plop,
And the green ferns grow high to the very tiptop,
Lived a woman named Kaʻiu,
With the smartest of stories that ever were told!She worked at ʻImiloa, a place of great peaks,
Where the people find answers to things that one seeks.
With telescopes pointing way up at the sky,
To see where the stars and the galaxies lie.“But wait!” cried Kaʻiu. “Before you look far,
Our kupuna already had named every star!
They sailed on the ocean with waves tossing high,
With the moon as their map and their home in the sky.”So when a space-traveler zoomed past with a thud,
(A long, rocky fellow, not made out of mud),
Kaʻiu gave a whistle, she gave a small shout:
“Let’s give him a name that we know all about!”ʻOumuamua! A messenger sent from the blue,
A name from the islands, for me and for you.
But that isn’t all that Kaʻiu would do,
She had a big school and a big college, too!Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani (what a name!),
Where speaking Hawaiian is the goal of the game.“Words are like seeds!” she would say with a grin,
“So open your mouths and let the words in!
Speak of the mountains! Speak of the sea!
Speak in the tongue of your own family tree!”From Waimea to Waikato, she traveled and learned,
Then back to her Hilo she quickly returned.To show every keiki, from small to the tall,
That you can be clever and know it all!
You can be a scientist, looking at Mars,
While chanting the songs of the ancient-most stars.For Kaʻiu knows a wonderful thing:
The more that you know, the more your heart will sing!So if you go walking in Hilo one day,
Look up at the peaks in the bright silver spray,
Think of Kaʻiu, who bridges the two —
The old and the old, and the brand-spanking new!
Related story
Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce honors UH Hilo’s Kaʻiu Kimura with 2026 Athena Leadership Award
Story by Susan Enright, public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
