Keith Hayashi
Keith T. Hayashi is superintendent of the Hawai‘i public schools system, overseeing 160,000 students, 258 campuses and more than 40,000 employees. Hayashi’s more than 30-year career with the Hawai‘i State Department of Education spans the school, complex area and state level. He led Waipahu High School as principal for 12 years, a position for which he received numerous accolades, including Hawai‘i High School Principal of the Year and the collegiate Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction. He is credited with pioneering the Early College program in Hawai‘i public schools and earned the distinction for Waipahu High as the state’s first nationally recognized wall-to-wall academy model school. As superintendent, he was honored with the state’s inaugural “Workforce Development Hero” Lifetime Achievement Award for his support and advocacy around strengthening the state’s education pipeline to support workforce needs.