  {"id":219647,"date":"2025-08-04T16:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T02:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=219647"},"modified":"2025-08-04T16:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T02:53:00","slug":"mahalo-chancellor-benham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/04\/mahalo-chancellor-benham\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahalo Chancellor Benham for your dedicated leadership"},"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\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-5.jpg\" alt=\"Maenette K. P. Ah Nee-Benham\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-219624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-5.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-5-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-5-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>This message was shared with the students, faculty and staff of the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> on August 4, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Aloha <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> <span aria-label=\"ohana\">&#699;ohana<\/span>,<\/p>\n<p>Earlier today, Chancellor Maenette Benham announced that she is stepping down in December 2025, after nearly nine years of leading <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"blocklink\">Related story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/04\/chancellor-benham-to-step-down-from-uhwo\/\">Chancellor Benham to step down from <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since January 2017, Maenette has been a tireless advocate for the campus, with a deep commitment to Native Hawaiian values, academic excellence and student success. She expanded academic programs aligned with <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\u2019s\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> workforce needs (e.g., creative media, cyber operations, natural and health sciences, pre-nursing pathway with <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa) and has had great success growing extramural funding and philanthropic support.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-4-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Maenette K. P. Ah Nee-Benham leading campus tour\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-219623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-4-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-4-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/west-oahu-benham-m-4.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Maenette&#8217;s leadership, rooted in aloha, <span aria-label=\"haahaa\">ha&#699;aha&#699;a<\/span> (humility) and community, has fostered strong relationships across the 10-campus <abbr>UH<\/abbr> System, state and Pacific region. As the first Native Hawaiian woman to lead a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> campus, I particularly admire her work as a role model and mentor to young women and Native Hawaiians.<\/p>\n<p>While Maenette\u2019s presence will be deeply missed, we are fortunate to have her leadership until the end of the year. Details on the search for her successor will be announced when they are finalized. Please join me in expressing our heartfelt mahalo to Chancellor Benham for her exceptional service and dedication.<\/p>\n<p>With gratitude and aloha,<br \/>\nWendy Hensel<br \/>\nPresident, University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;Maenette&#8217;s leadership, rooted in aloha, <span aria-label=\"haahaa\">ha&#699;aha&#699;a<\/span> (humility) and community, has fostered strong relationships across the 10-campus <abbr>UH<\/abbr> System, state and Pacific region.&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1193],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-219647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative","tag-uh-west-oahu","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219647","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=219647"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219652,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219647\/revisions\/219652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}