UH Hilo honors employees, retirees at annual awards celebration
Kekoa Harman and five other UH Hilo employees were singled out for work that keeps classrooms, language programs and campus operations moving.
UH Hilo used its May 13 awards celebration to spotlight the people behind the campus, from instructors shaping student learning to staff keeping buildings, classrooms and services running for the university and the wider East Hawaii community. Chancellor Bonnie Irwin hosted the annual Awards and Recognition Celebration on campus, where the university honored award recipients, retirees from the previous year and employees marking milestone years of service.
The clearest example of UH Hilo’s priorities came through Kekoa Harman, an associate professor of Hawaiian studies and Hawaiian language who received both the UH System Board of Regents Excellence in Teaching Award and the UH Hilo Pūlama Ike Award. Harman was born and raised on Maui, attended Kamehameha Schools Kapālama and came to UH Hilo in 1998. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in Hawaiian studies in 2001, a master’s degree in Indigenous language and culture education in 2008 and a doctorate in Hawaiian and Indigenous language and culture revitalization in 2020, all at UH Hilo. He has described his teaching as part of a larger Hawaiian-language movement in East Hawaii, a reminder that the university’s classroom work reaches well beyond the campus gates.
Other honorees reflected the breadth of work UH Hilo says it values. Elisabeth Gallant received the UH System Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Adriane Lewandowski received the UH Hilo Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Luzviminda Miguel was recognized with the UH Hilo Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi Award for Excellence and Innovation. Hollind Paiva received the UH Hilo Excellence in Building and Grounds Maintenance Award, and Kathleen Hughes received the UH Hilo Excellence in Service Award.
Those awards are more than ceremonial. UH Hilo defines the Regents’ teaching honor as recognition for extraordinary subject mastery, scholarship, teaching effectiveness, creativity and values that benefit students. The Frances Davis award honors dedication to teaching and attention to undergraduates. The maintenance award recognizes sustained superior performance in maintenance, landscaping, custodial, shop or trucking work, while the service award goes to an employee whose professional skills benefit the university and its community.
The recognition also showed how UH Hilo presents itself as an institution with long memory. The university’s awards pages list prior winners for the same honors, underscoring that this is an established annual practice, not a one-time gesture. UH Hilo held the same celebration in 2025, also hosted by Irwin, and the 2026 event again framed employees, retirees and service milestones as central to the campus mission.
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