UH Board of Regents Approves Tanaka and Kooker as Interim Deans

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

The University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents has approved appointments of Peter Tanaka as Interim Dean of UH Mānoa‘s Outreach College and Barbara Kooker to be Interim Dean of the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene. The appointments were made at the Board‘s meeting earlier this month.

Tanaka assumed his position as Interim Dean on May 20 as Dean Victor Kobayashi begins a six-month sabbatical leave. Tanaka has been serving as interim associate dean. He joined the UH Mānoa Summer Session in December 1987 as Assistant Specialist for the International Program. Summer Session merged with the College of Continuing Education in 1998 to become the Outreach College.

Kooker will become Interim Dean effective June 1. She moves into the position as Dean Rosanne Harrigan takes a faculty position in the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Kooker has been with the nursing program for nearly 20 years, and has served in a variety of leadership positions since then, compiling an extensive record of service, research and teaching.