"The trajectory of my life completely transformed beyond my wildest dreams as I never envisioned that I would have the privilege of serving as an executive at the university."

Hometown

Kāne‘ohe and ‘Aiea, HI

Department

Educational Administration

Related Degrees

• BEd, Elementary Education
• MEd, Educational Administration: Higher Ed
• PhD, Education: Educational Administration - Higher Education

COEAA Spotlight on Lori Ideta (Credit: Lori Furoyama)

Growing Up

I was born in Kāne‘ohe but was really raised in ‘Aiea. My mom’s parents, lived in ‘Aiea, and I went to Alvah Scott Elementary, ‘Aiea Intermediate, and ‘Aiea High School, a proud Nā Ali‘i. I’m a yonsei (fourth generation) and a proud product of Hawaii’s public schools and a first generation college graduate. My mom actually was a custodian here at UHM long before I started my college career. She scrubbed toilets and cleaned chalkboards on this campus to put my brother and me through higher education. We are so proud of her and indebted to her for all of the sacrifices she made to ensure that we had a better life.

Road to College & Career Path

In elementary school, every single teacher was an Asian female. So, I grew up with role models of Department of Education (DOE) school teachers being Asian females. It is no coincidence then that my first interest and my first love, and what I thought would be the rest of my career, was to be an elementary school teacher. It is also not a coincidence that I did not grow up thinking that I was going to be a doctor or an actress or an astronaut or a scientist because I didn’t see role models like myself out there. My bachelor’s degree is in elementary education. I thought I would be a second-grade school teacher for the rest of my life.

I worked at the College of Education Office of Student Academic Services as a student assistant. We did everything from answering phones to running errands to helping with student interviews and administering tests for the admission requirements. Looking back, we were peer advisors conducting peer mentoring long before those terms existed. I worked alongside academic advisors and administrators, and I realized there was a way to influence education outside of the DOE. That’s when I decided to get my Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration. Without the College of Education, I don’t know where I would be. It was the faculty of Educational Administration who encouraged me to get a doctorate degree. After the 50th time of them telling me that I needed to pursue a doctorate and that I needed to apply, I did what my sensei told me to do and I applied to doctoral programs. And, to my pleasant surprise, I got accepted. Remember that I am a first-generation college kid. The trajectory of my life completely transformed beyond my wildest dreams as I never envisioned that I would have the privilege of serving as an executive at the university.

Dissertation Research

My dissertation was on Asian women leaders of higher education. I traveled to the continent to interview Asian women in senior leadership positions – deans, chancellors, vice presidents, and presidents who identified as Asian females. I wrote their life biographies. I visited them, shadowed them for a day and then came home and typed up their stories. I emailed or snail mailed their biographies to them, and we co-constructed their life narratives. The research process of my dissertation would be the coalescence of all the aspects of my life. I fell in love with all the women because I thought they were all fabulous. They became big sisters and mentors and heroes. In my retirement, I would love to follow up with these women and find out how their journeys continued after I documented their lives in the late 1990s.

Best Part of Teaching

The ability to help students. We can lift them up and support them, whether with wraparound services or on an individual one-on-one basis. We’re teaching them about conflict resolution skills, how to work in teams, or how to have grit and resilience. What we do is outside of the classroom experience and now more than ever, I think society recognizes how critical these skills are, which wasn’t true 30 years ago. It’s our kuleana, our responsibility, to be able to infuse those things in students. It’s been a joy and a privilege to be able to do that. If my efforts assisted at least one student and made their life a bit better, then I was successful.

Future Plans

What am I NOT going to do in my retirement?! I have lots of plans. I’m going to turn off my phone at night for the first time in 27 years and charge it in another room as I will not be on call anymore. I want to travel and am looking forward to not being on Zoom calls or checking emails when I am away. I’m also going to take naps daily. I read an article the other day that said people who nap every day have bigger brains so I need to work on that! I have a stack of books next to my bed that has just been collecting dust for years and years so I need to get busy reading them instead of BOR minutes and audit reports. I also want to sew again and engage in my art again – fire up the right side of the brain. I also want to go to the Hawaiʻi State Archives to do my family genealogy. So much to do!

Fun Facts

I love Hello Kitty. I have been in the Chu Chi tunnels built by the Viet Kong in Viet Nam. I had dinner with Caroline Kennedy at her home when she was Ambassador to Japan. I love natto (our family is from Kumamoto). I wear a 4 ½ shoe – so when folks say that in my retirement, I will leave big shoes to fill, I correct them!