Victoria Hanes to lead Hawaii Island Community Health Center in November

Victoria Hanes will step into one of Hawaii Island’s most important safety-net jobs in November, taking the helm of a health center that already serves about 40,000 patients a year and is trying to expand care faster than demand is growing.

Hawaii Island Community Health Center said Hanes will succeed Richard Taaffe, who has led the organization since 2005, first at West Hawaii Community Health Center and later through the 2022 merger that brought Bay Clinic and West Hawaii Community Health Center together under one nonprofit system. The transition matters well beyond the boardroom: HICHC is one of the island’s main providers of primary care, behavioral health, dental care and pharmacy services, with nearly 500 staff members spread across 16 sites, eight school-based health centers and a mobile clinic.

Hanes is hardly new to the operation she is about to lead. She came to the Big Island in 2009 as a postdoctoral student training at the former West Hawaii Community Health Center and later moved through clinical psychologist, behavioral health director and chief operating officer roles. That background gives her a view of how the system works from the exam room to the administrative office, a perspective HICHC will need as it tries to keep up with growing need on Hawaii Island.

The center’s patient base is large and financially vulnerable. A 2025 report said roughly 60% of HICHC patients were Medicaid beneficiaries, underscoring how central the nonprofit is for families who depend on public coverage and low-cost care. The center has also said its school-based health programs served more than 3,000 students in the prior year, and its mobile health unit was expected to reach 42 schools by May 2026.

Taaffe has been pushing an ambitious expansion plan before handing off the job. In 2025, HICHC sought $80 million in special purpose revenue bonds to build four more facilities in Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Pāhoa and Ocean View, add 32 primary-care exam rooms and expand capacity by about 40%. The goal was to grow from roughly 40,000 patients a year to as many as 55,000.

For patients waiting longer for appointments, or families driving across the island for basic care, the next CEO will help determine whether that expansion becomes real. Hanes is inheriting not just a larger organization, but the day-to-day challenge of turning growth into more access for underserved communities from Keaau to Waikoloa.