Joy Kono was recently named senior director of Education Support Services and Group Operations, a newly created position within Kamehameha Schools’ Administration Group. Kono previously served as director of Financial Aid and Scholarship Services at KS.

Kono’s kuleana includes working closely with Kamehameha’s Admissions, Financial Aid and Scholarship Services, Ho‘oulu Hawaiian Data Center, and Applicant Services Center teams to design and deliver services to constituents that align with the strategies and tactics created by the Education Group.

“Education has a deliverable and we will help them meet that deliverable by recruiting the right student, determining the right testing and financial information they want, compiling that and coming up with a student group for them,” Kono said.

In addition to her work regarding education, Kono is also responsible for tracking and managing the Administration Group’s audit actions, variance reports, and policy reviews. She also is tasked with coordinating and reviewing the group’s annual reports.

Though she said it may seem challenging, Kono says she believes it’s a great opportunity to be able to provide for KS’ plan to move forward in 2020.

“It’s exciting that we can tear down walls and rebuild them the right way we want to for the next four years,” she said.

Kono joined KS in 2002 as a purchasing manager before being named director of Financial Aid and Scholarships in 2005. Before her time at KS, Kono spent 14 years at a C. Brewer company, and prior to that at a high-tech and agribusiness company while working towards her master’s degree in California.

Born and raised on a family farm on Kaua‘i, Kono recalls how at a very young age her father had to go out and find another job, leaving the farming to herself, mother, and two sisters. She credits her work ethic to her farming background, which included everything from planning and managing the day’s to-do list, planting, harvesting, raising and caring for animals, to unloading two tons of feed with her two sisters.

“I could do anything and everything because that’s what we were taught on the farm and that’s my background today,” Kono said. “We have our vision and we can do it if we plan well but most importantly, do it together.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in agriculture economics, Kono earned a master’s in business administration from Santa Clara University.

When she’s not planning, you can find Kono at the baseball field with her son or on an occasional trip to Las Vegas with her mother, but mostly she says, at the gym.

“Everyone knows me here as a gym rat,” said Kono, who is a certified spinning instructor. “My daughter is full-time student and works at the gym so if I want to see my daughter I have to go to the gym. It’s a natural place for me to be.”

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