Leadership Conference 2019

CLOSING GENERAL SESSION
3:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.

What It Takes To Lead

Chief Susan Ballard, Honolulu Police Department

Chief Susan Ballard became the Honolulu Police Department’s 11th chief and Hawaiʻi’s first female chief of police on November 1, 2017. She joined the HPD in 1985 and worked in a wide range of field and administrative assignments, including the Narcotics/Vice and Criminal Investigation divisions and Downtown-Chinatown patrol district. As a commander, she has led the Kaneohe and Kalihi patrol districts and the Finance, Training, and Central Receiving divisions.

Chief Ballard believes in the department’s mission statement of Serving and Protecting with Aloha. She envisions the community and HPD working together to make Oahu safe for its nearly one million residents and five times as many visitors. Her priorities include rebuilding public trust, preventing and solving crime, and recruiting and retaining quality employees. She is also committed to expanding police programs for the young and elderly.

Born in Virginia and raised in North Carolina, Chief Ballard has a Master of Arts degree in health and physical education from Tennessee Technological University and a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education from Appalachian State University.

David Lassner, President, University of Hawaiʻi

David Lassner is the 15th president of the University of Hawai’i (UH), the statewide system comprising all public higher education in Hawaiʻi.  Lassner has worked at UH since 1977 and prior to being appointed as President he served as UH’s first Vice President for IT and Chief Information Officer.  Lassner is working to help more Hawaiʻi residents earn college credentials and to strengthen Hawaiʻi’s economy by creating and filling high-quality jobs.

Dr. Christina Kishimoto, Superintendent, Hawaii State Department of Education

Dr. Christina M. Kishimoto began a three-year contract as superintendent on Aug. 1, 2017. She is responsible for efficiently and effectively administering the Hawaiʻi public school system in accordance with law and educational policies adopted by the Board of Education. On October 3, 2017, Dr. K presented an Implementation Plan to advance the goals of the DOE/BOE Strategic Plan. Her plan is targeted around three high impact strategies: School Design, Student Voice, and Teacher Collaboration.

Dr. Kishimoto is a former Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer for Gilbert Public Schools in Gilbert, Arizona, a district with an enrollment of 36,500 students and an annual budget of $305 million. She also served as Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of School Design at Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut was the Founder and Director of The Center for School Improvement & Leadership Development at Area Cooperative Education Services, and Assistant Dean of Student Services for Wesleyan University. She earned a Doctorate in Education Administration from Columbia University Teachers College, a Master of Public Administration in Public Affairs and Policy from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Barnard College.

Chris Tatum, CEO & President, Hawaii Tourism Authority

Chris Tatum was appointed as president and CEO of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA) on November 29, 2018. HTA is the agency responsible for strategically managing the State of Hawai‘i’s support of the tourism industry.

Tatum joined HTA after retiring from a 37-year career as a senior executive with Marriott, most recently as the area general manager for Marriott Resorts Hawai‘i. He joined Marriott after graduating from Michigan State University and steadily rose through the ranks holding leadership positions on the U.S. mainland, and in Asia, Australia and Hawai‘i.

Tatum has contributed his time and expertise to helping improve Hawai‘i’s tourism industry, having previously served as chairman of the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau, O‘ahu Visitors Bureau and Hawai‘i Lodging and Tourism Association. In 2015, Tatum was presented with the Legacy in Tourism Award by the University of Hawai‘i’s School of Travel Industry Management in recognition of his tourism leadership.

Tatum moved with his family to Honolulu as a youth and graduated from Admiral Arthur W. Radford High School. His career in the hospitality industry began as a housekeeping houseman in the late 1970s at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikīkī during his summers home from college.

Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, U.S. Army

Joe Anderson is a visionary leader with unparalleled global experience. Throughout his career, he held military roles that essentially are the same as civilian COOs, culminating in Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of the Army. In this position, he carried out the role of Chief Operating Officer for the entire U.S. Army, responsible for all operations involving more than 180,000 soldiers deployed in 140 countries as well as supporting all emergency operations in the U.S., including relief efforts for disasters such as Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Florence. He also was responsible for all Army training, leadership development, education policy, mobilization and staff preparedness, and oversaw a budget of $23.2 billion.

Valued for the core competencies of many C-suite members, Joe brings extensive experience and expertise in driving results, managing complexity, building teams & networks, situational adaptability and global perspective.

As Commanding General of the XVIII Airborne Corps in Fort Bragg, NC, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, Joe was responsible for four combat divisions, including more than 275,000 men and women on multiple military bases with units engaged in combat in Afghanistan. He essentially fulfilled the role of “mayor” at Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. military post in the world, overseeing a city that is more than 250 square miles in area, has a civilian/military combined population of more than 80,000 and provided all of the municipal services that any city has to offer. He was also Commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, which was a coalition of 48 nations. 

Moderator: Bill Dorman, Vice President & News Director,  Hawaii Public Radio

Bill Dorman is Vice President and News Director at Hawaii Public Radio, where he has worked since 2011. He also serves as the chair of the Public Media Journalists Foundation, a national group supporting news leaders and quality journalism in local and regional public media.

Previously he was Managing Editor, Asia Pacific Broadcast for Bloomberg News, overseeing editorial content with teams in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Beijing.

He also worked at CNN for 21 years in a variety of roles, including writer, producer and business news correspondent in Tokyo, Washington DC and New York, as well as executive producer. His awards include a national Emmy and recognition from the Overseas Press Club of New York, the Academy of Cable Excellence and others. 

He has an MS in Journalism from Columbia University and an AB in English from Dartmouth College. He is married to Noriko Namiki, his former producer at CNN.