UH West O‘ahu welcomes new hires

University of Hawaiʻi-West Oʻahu
Contact:
Julie Funasaki Yuen, (808) 454-4821
Public Relations and Marketing Department
Posted: Jun 8, 2009


UH West Oʻahu is happy to announce the following new hires in the University‘s academic affairs, administrative services and student services departments. Academic Affairs Dr. Patricia Lee Masters recently joined the University as academic program officer. Masters is an experienced educator and comes to UH West Oʻahu with a wealth of understanding in higher education nationally and abroad. She provides administrative support to the vice chancellor for academic affairs in the development and administration of academic programs and their associated activities. Her responsibilities include interpreting and preparing academic policies, procedures and requirements, and monitoring academic programs with an emphasis on the reaccreditation of UH West Oʻahu. Previously, Masters was the academic dean on an international shipboard semester abroad program sponsored by MacQuarie University in Sydney, Australia. She was also the director of international programs for Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California where she directed the international study abroad office. Prior to that, Masters was the faculty and international program director at Antioch University in Ohio where she taught courses on Asia in the political science and Asian and pacific studies programs. Masters also served as the director of the East Asian Center in Kyoto, Japan where she taught courses in cultural politics, international relations and more. A resident of Manoa, she earned a bachelor‘s degree in oriental languages and literature and a master‘s degree in Buddhist and Asian studies at UCLA, a master of public health degree from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a PhD in political science with a focus on political theory and philosophy/comparative politics from UH Mānoa. Administrative Services Jamie Hernandez joined the UH West Oʻahu Business Office as grants administrator. In this role, she oversees the day-to-day management of all extramural funds including generating financial status reports and maintaining accurate and timely records. In addition, Hernandez certifies the availability of funds and propriety of expenditures on procurement, travel, or accounting documents, assists in the preparation of grant proposals for research projects, develops detailed budgets, and administers projects when awards are received. She also ensures compliance with University of Hawaiʻi, state and federal rules and regulations, and is responsible for fiscal accountability and documentation of procurement and acquisitions, receipts and issue records. Prior to her new position at UH West Oʻahu, Jamie worked as institutional support in the School of Ocean & Earth Science Technology at UH Mānoa for the past 20 years where she managed all funds allocated to the division for instructional, research and training programs. Hernandez was also responsible for monitoring, program planning, budget development and execution, fiscal compliance and control, contracts and grants management, and personnel administration. She received an associate‘s degree in secretarial science from Kapiʻolani Community College and resides in Kunia. Student ServicesLester Ishimoto recently joined UH West Oʻahu as financial aid officer where he is responsible for fund management, reconciling accounts, set-up and modifications of the Banner system, awarding financial aid, managing student employment and preparing federal and state financial aid reports. A veteran professional, Ishimoto has more than 20 years of financial aid experience and most recently worked as a financial aid administrator at the Digipen Institute of Technology in Washington. There, he was responsible for counseling students on financial aid options, evaluating financial aid applications, processing Stafford and private loans, managing internal scholarship programs and staying current on changing financial aid federal regulations. Ishimoto has also held positions at Bellingham Technical College in Washington as well as Honolulu Community College, UH Mānoa and Leeward Community College.A resident of Pearl City, he graduated from UH Mānoa with a bachelor‘s degree in psychology and a master‘s degree in counseling and guidance.
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About UH West OʻahuUH West Oʻahu became a four-year, comprehensive university when it served its first class of freshmen in fall 2007. The University offers quality education, small classes and personalized attention at convenient locations. UH West Oʻahu held a ground blessing ceremony in January in anticipation of the start of construction for a state-of-the art, new campus in the City of Kapolei. For more information, visit uhwo.hawaii.edu, twitter.com/uhwestoahu or call 454-4700 or toll-free (866) 299-8656.

For more information, visit: http://www.uhwo.hawaii.edu