Faculty & Staff Highlights - February 2026

Chelsea Kay-Wong, Registrar, Office of the Registrar, DSA

Chelsea first joined the Office of the Registrar in Summer 2005 as a participant in the Upward Bound program. She later enrolled at UH Hilo and continued her employment in the Office of the Registrar as a student assistant until graduating in 2009. After graduation, she was hired into a Casual staff position as Office Manager. She subsequently served in the interim Assistant Registrar role, was appointed permanent Assistant Registrar in 2012, and has held the position of Registrar since 2014. Her responsibilities include overseeing the full registration process, archiving and maintaining student records, implementing STAR, certifying student participation, managing academic transcript and graduation conferral processes, contributing to the Course Program of Study, and serving as the campus FERPA Compliance Officer.

“Every university needs someone that will ‘go to bat’ for their students, faculty, and staff. Chelsea Kay-Wong is the perfect example of someone who will ‘go to bat’ for the UH Hilo ‘ohana! She has worked within the Office of the Registrar under multiple roles, spanning from student employee to Registrar. With her different job titles, she has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in university and office policies and procedures and apply them to her out-of-the-box thinking. She is constantly looking for ways to be more efficient and keep transparency between different departments and campuses. In the most recent eBanner transition, she has spearheaded a lot behind the scenes and has been a crucial advocate. Chelsea also supports our staff in being family-oriented and strives for our office to be cohesive and supportive of one another. Chelsea has done so much for our university and more than deserves to be recognized as an outstanding staff at UH Hilo.” Nominated by Malia Callo, Office of the Registrar