Hawaii Community College chancellor Susan Kazama to retire after 40 years

Hawaii Community College is about to lose a leader whose departure will shape how the Hilo campus carries its recent momentum into a new era. Susan Kazama will retire July 31 after a 40-year University of Hawaii career, leaving behind an institution that has been rebuilding enrollment, expanding job training and trying to lock in long-term partnerships across Hawaii Island.

Kazama became the college’s permanent chancellor effective July 19, 2024, after serving a year in the role on an interim basis. UH said she is stepping down in part so she can spend more time caring for her elderly parents, ending a career that started in library work at Maui College and Honolulu Community College before she later served at UH Mānoa’s Hamilton Library.

For Hawaii Island, her exit matters well beyond campus administration. Hawaii CC is a major pipeline for health care, trades, education and other local jobs, and the next chancellor will inherit decisions already in motion: how to keep enrollment growing, how to sustain workforce programs, and how to turn new funding into training that leads to island jobs. UH said enrollment rose 8.7 percent and reached 2,489 students in fall 2025, while the college also posted record retention and success rates.

The college also entered this transition with a major institutional credential in hand. Hawaii CC received full seven-year reaffirmation of accreditation in February 2026 after completing its 2025 Institutional Self-Evaluation Report and undergoing a peer review in March 2025. That gives the next chancellor a stable platform, but also a responsibility to protect the gains that came before the leadership change.

Kazama’s tenure was tied to a push to widen access beyond Hilo. UH credited her with expanding educational opportunities at the Pālamanui campus and the Kō Education Center, launching the college’s first drone certification program, supporting butchery cohorts and helping secure scholarship funding through partnerships. The drone program was backed by a $650,000 National Science Foundation grant, while the butchery program drew support from a four-year, $950,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant.

One of the most closely watched efforts was a 16-acre land acquisition tied to sustainable agriculture. The college says the land will support hands-on learning, food security and workforce development, making the succession question even sharper for students, faculty and employers who are counting on those projects to keep moving.

An interim chancellor will be named in the coming weeks. For Hawaii CC, the handoff comes at a moment when the college has rare momentum and the stakes are measured not just in enrollment figures, but in whether Hawaii Island keeps training the workers its communities need.