Carla Ho‘a has been selected as the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s new vice chancellor for administrative affairs following a UH Board of Regents committee meeting held Nov. 3.
Ho‘a’s appointment begins Jan. 9, 2023. She replaces Kalei Rapoza, who served in the interim position.
Ho‘a joins UH-Hilo from the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she served in various positions since 2013, most recently as vice chancellor and chief financial officer.
According to a UH-Hilo press release, some of Ho‘a’s notable accomplishments during her tenure at CU Boulder include: leadership of a new incentive-based campus budget model to align resources with campus priorities; development of a financial plan to address COVID-related enrollment declines without disrupting the academic and research missions of the university; development of tuition and aid strategies to attract and retain students; development of a long-range financial model to provide a road map that includes enrollment projections, capital planning, cash flow projections, endowments and investments and financial indicators to assess fiscal health and resilience; and development of a $25 million plan for financially sustainable, impactful and transparent investments to support campus priorities for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Ho‘a received her bachelor’s degree in finance and master’s in business administration from the University of Colorado-Denver.
“I express my gratitude and appreciation to Kalei Rapoza for serving as our interim vice chancellor for administrative affairs since Fall 2017,” UH-Hilo Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin said in the release. “He has done an admirable job, and I cannot thank him enough for his contributions to the leadership team, especially throughout the pandemic.”