Alan R. Shoho, who earned an MEd in Secondary Education from the UH Mānoa College of Education, has been appointed as the new provost and senior vice president of Hawaiʻi Pacific University (HPU), effective May 1, 2026.
“This appointment affords me the opportunity to come full circle and make a difference for the people of Hawaiʻi in a small way,” Shoho said. “One of my goals at HPU is to attract more local students and give them real life opportunities to learn and receive an experiential education where they receive a lot of hands-on, personalized attention and have a transformative experience in their learning. We hope to become one of the few universities that not only espouses student centricity, but lives it in all aspects of our culture and operations.”
Having spent his early years in Hawaiʻi, Shoho is returning to the islands after 40 years.
“UH Mānoa will always have a special place in my heart, and I hope to implement the type of learning experience I received at the COE throughout HPU from undergraduate to graduate to our military students,” Shoho said.
With more than 30 years of experience in higher education, Shoho has served as the provost and chief academic officer at New Mexico State University and as dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to those positions, he was associate vice provost for academic and faculty support at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he spent 21 years.
“I had great professors at the COE like Frank Brown, Albert Carr, Tony Picard, Mitsuo Adachi, and Charles Araki,” Shoho said. “The two most influential people were Charles Araki and Frank Brown. I was Frank Brownʻs GA and he was such a caring mentor. Charles Araki gave me a role model to emulate and think about the possibilities. They all influenced me to pursue leadership and helped me attend Arizona State University where I got my Ed.D. The program was very humanistic and taught me the importance of never forgetting the human element.”
