Hawaiian innovation: Jennifer Walsh

From the window beside her desk, Hawaii Pacific University’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Chief Strategy Officer, Jennifer Walsh, enjoys an iconic view.

"I can see Pearl Harbor from my window here on the Honolulu Harbor," she tells The CEO Magazine.

While this vista has tremendous historical significance in light of its tragic 1941 bombing during World War II, Hawaii Pacific University’s founding in 1965, just over 20 years later, serves as a bright reminder of the state’s remarkable recovery and optimism over the ensuing years.

Hawaii Pacific University is now one of the leading higher education institutions in the Hawaiian Islands, serving thousands of students and providing invaluable growth opportunities for its students, local industry and community.

Uniquely positioned

Walsh’s move to Hawaii five years ago marked the beginning of a period of significant change and growth for the university. Having previously worked as Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University and as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Azusa Pacific University, Walsh’s illustrious background has given her remarkable insight into universities and how they can thrive.

It was the challenge of innovating within a uniquely positioned institution that she says drew her to the role.

"What we’ve learned here in Hawaii is that traditional university models don’t necessarily work when you’re the most remote metropolitan city on the planet," she says.

"We can’t always take advantage of some of the resources that other institutions on the United States mainland – or the rest of the world – can. So, we have to be scrappy and think differently."

While many universities remain steadfast in their centuries-old traditions and cultures, Hawaii Pacific University is uniquely innovative and agile in its approach.

"Yes, we want to preserve the best of our traditions, but we also recognize that the evolutionary speed by which we are seeing industries and businesses change requires a different response if we’re to stay relevant," she says.

"We combat the assumption that university education is stale and outdated, and we’re willing to prove it by being ready to change rapidly to meet the needs of our communities. We’re not afraid to manage that change and figure out the operational components to provide education, training and relevance with excellence."

Island of opportunity

Tasked with developing strategic initiatives for the university, Walsh says she needed to look no further than outside her office window at Pearl Harbor to be reminded of the island’s strong military connections.

"The United States has always recognized how pivotal Hawaii is to our Indo-Pacific defense, which is why part of our economy is driven by Department of Defense spending," she explains.

"We have every military branch represented here on the island of Oahu, where the university is located."

Walsh expanded its partnership with the Department of Defense whereby the university provides academic training exclusively for Hawaii-based military personnel. She convened a team of academic and industry leaders to determine what the university needed to provide to help meet the Department’s needs and, in the process, developed an invaluable resource for the island state.

Walsh has also established much sought-after academic opportunities for Department of Defense civilian contractors – non-enlisted personnel – to satisfy construction contracts in the local region.

"A construction management request came through as industry leaders within that sector realized how difficult it was to import talent from the United States mainland," she explains.

"They realized it would be much more efficient to grow our own talent pool here in Hawaii through targeted advanced degrees that provide specific training to prepare individuals for managerial roles in those projects," she says.

Walsh and her team have since established an innovative degree program, which can be completed in a year of full-time study.

"It allows people who come in with different backgrounds – not just engineering, but everything from psychology to business and other degrees – to get advanced training and then be effectively utilized on construction sites in Hawaii right after that training is complete," she says.

"We’re the only in-person university now that provides on-ground education for military personnel and civilian defense personnel located on all seven bases here on the island."

Walsh says the university’s first objective is to help the Hawaiian Islands local community meet its educational and training needs to sustain its growth and economy.

"It’s very expensive to import talent from other parts of the world to serve in particular jobs, which is why we want to make sure that if there is a need for talent, we’re the first go-to for industry," she says.

Growth and expansion

Hawaii Pacific University has consequently experienced tremendous growth over the last five years alone, with its student population increasing by 40 percent. This bucks the trend on the United States mainland, where many academic institutions are experiencing a drop in student numbers.

"While the university will continue to offer generalized degree programs, it will also continue to expand on its professional and graduate programs to specific industry workforce needs," she says.

As part of its ongoing growth strategy, the university has established a campus on the United States mainland in Las Vegas, Nevada, to cater to the city’s growing Hawaiian population.

"Hawaiian expats that have settled in Las Vegas now have an academic home for some of our healthcare programs, which could provide a way back to Hawaii if they choose to relocate," Walsh says.

"The Las Vegas campus will certainly feel like home to them in terms of how the facility is laid out and the way the curriculum is designed. And the beauty of this program is that you don’t have to be a permanent resident in Las Vegas to take advantage of it."

In a similar way, the university has also designed programs specifically for healthcare in Honolulu where students can attend for a couple of weeks a semester for practical experience and then go back to their permanent residence and complete classes online.

"If you look at our evolutionary history, we’ve grown from a traditional, residential campus university to one now that has remote locations with a growing online graduate and professional hybrid program presence, which has dramatically expanded our enrollments and therefore industry partnerships," Walsh says.

"Five years from now, if we were to look into the future, we wouldn’t even be able to describe what the university will look like because we are not afraid to change."