  {"id":211620,"date":"2025-03-03T11:31:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T21:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=211620"},"modified":"2025-03-03T11:37:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T21:37:04","slug":"uh-alumni-greg-chun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/03\/uh-alumni-greg-chun\/","title":{"rendered":"Maunakea stewardship executive director is alumnus of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/maunakea-greg-chun.png\" alt=\"greg chun headshot\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-211633\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/maunakea-greg-chun.png 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/maunakea-greg-chun-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/maunakea-greg-chun-130x73.png 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Greg Chun, executive director of Maunakea stewardship at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>, recognizes the magnitude of his role.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As we know Maunakea is very significant in Hawaiian culture as the piko (belly button) of life itself,&rdquo; said Chun. &ldquo;It is also a very special physical environmental monument because of its characteristics.&rdquo;<\/p>\n[vc_video link=&#8221;https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/JShNHg0siYE&#8221; el_aspect=&#8221;916&#8243; align=&#8221;right&#8221; el_id=&#8221;wrap-video-right&#8221;]\n<p>Maunakea is not only sacred to many Native Hawaiians and non-Native Hawaiians, it is also arguably the best place in the world for astronomy. Chun oversees <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> programs that protect and care for Maunakea\u2019s natural and cultural resources, along with educational activities. In addition to supporting world-class research, he is also responsible for managing public activities on the mountain.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I remember the first time I was up there in the evening,&rdquo; Chun said. &ldquo;Standing outside of the observatory and looking up, you literally felt you could reach up and touch the stars.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Education provides opportunities<\/h2>\n<p>Chun earned his bachelor of arts in psychology from <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo before pursuing his master\u2019s and <abbr title=\"doctor of philosophy\">PhD<\/abbr> at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa. He said education provides students with unique opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Education in general gives you the opportunity to broaden yourself and bring more knowledge, tools and skills into whatever endeavor you do,&rdquo; said Chun.<\/p>\n<p>He also highlighted the importance of staying connected to the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> community because of its broader impact on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The university as we all know is an extremely important organization in the state because of the education, research and preparation we do to serve our community in different ways,&rdquo; Chun said. &ldquo;I also think the university represents a portal to think about the future and what the future of our state could be.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about other outstanding <a href=\"https:\/\/uhalumni.org\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Alumni<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The executive director of Maunakea stewardship earned three degrees from the University of  <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,679,1363,305,271,319,14,9,56],"class_list":["post-211620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-manoa-research","tag-office-of-mauna-kea-management","tag-uh-alumni-association","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211620"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211642,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211620\/revisions\/211642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}