After 11 years of commuting and classes by correspondence, Deborah Kimokeo is finally the proud holder of a doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York City. “I’m very proud of her,” said her husband, Lihu‘e native son Kimo
After 11 years of commuting and classes by correspondence, Deborah Kimokeo is finally the proud holder of a doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York City.
“I’m very proud of her,” said her husband, Lihu‘e native son Kimo Kimokeo, from their Davis, Calif., home.
For the first few years, the Kimokeos lived in Pennsylvania while she worked in New Jersey and went to classes in New York City. Eventually, she did her coursework via e-mail and the Internet, returning to Columbia every now and then, he said.
Deborah is now the crisis guidance manager for the Davis Joint Unified School District, which has an enrollment of more than 6,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
“I work with kids and families that are in crisis situations,” she said.
Those situations may include deaths, suicides, drugs or alcohol abuse.
She said a lot of the kids she worked with come back and to visit.
“My door is always open,” she said.
Nicknamed “Dr. Deborah,” she’s been the district’s crisis manager for the past eight years.
“I love my job,” the California native said.
She met Kimo at the University of Oregon.
“He was so much fun to be around, and he was very good looking,” she said.
Based out of an office on the University of California-Davis campus, Kimo is a recruiter for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
“His target audience is Asian and Pacific Islanders,” his wife said. “He goes to the University of Hawai‘i a lot to recruit for the Forest Service.”
Deborah’s father-in-law, James “Uncle Jimmy” Kimokeo Jr. of Anahola, made the trip to New York for her May 16 graduation.
“He’s a kick — he’s just so full of energy,” she said. “He was so supportive with my doctorate, and none of my parents are living.”
The supports goes both ways. Though Kimo’s mother, Ida, is deceased, his father lives life for two. When Uncle Jimmy was in his 70s, Deborah said he took a trip down the West Coast aboard the Hokule‘a, a double-hulled, ocean-voyaging canoe.
“I’m really proud of Kimo’s dad,” she said.
In addition to being an adventurer of sorts, Kimo said his father is a local Hawaiian sovereignty activist, Kaua‘i Museum volunteer and former captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Cynthia Kaneshiro, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or ckaneshiro@kauaipubco.com.
