BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright announced on June 12 that Dr. Debbie Hippolite Wright, LCSW, Ph.D. [pictured at left], will become the new Vice President for Student Development and Services. Dr. Hippolite Wright, who is currently an LDS Family Services Clinical Supervisor in West Valley, Utah, will assume her new position on July 7.
"We're delighted Dr. Hippolite Wright can rejoin our university family," President Wheelwright said. "She brings a unique blend of experience and expertise that lends itself so well to our highly diverse student body from Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, Asia and the Pacific islands."
President Wheelwright explained BYU-Hawaii's new organizational redesign has consolidated the university President's Council from four vice presidents and a chief information officer under three VP positions, plus the Assistant to the President. In addition to undertaking some new responsibilities, Dr. Hippolite Wright will succeed Isileli Kongaika, current Vice President of Student Affairs. Kongaika, who has served in that position for the past 12 years. He will take another position at BYUH.
Dr. Hippolite Wright, of Maori-Caucasian descent, came to BYU-Hawaii shortly after graduating from the Church College of New Zealand. While an undergraduate here, she worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center. After her bachelor's degree in social work, she served fulltime in the Philippines-Davao Mission, and then earned an MSW degree from BYU in Provo.
Dr. Hippolite Wright joined the BYU-Hawaii faculty in 1990 and served for 17 years as a professor of social work and also as department chairperson. During that time she earned her doctorate in psychology from the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. She is widely recognized for her professional work in the Pacific islands, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Earlier this year, the BYU-Hawaii President's Council and Alumni Association presented Dr. Hippolite Wright with the Genuine Gold Award for being an example of the type of student President David O. McKay foresaw BYU-Hawaii would produce when he founded the university as the Church College of Hawaii in 1955 (the name changed in 1974).
At that time, Dr. Hippolite Wright responded, "My sense of purpose professionally is connected to the testimony that I gained at BYU-Hawaii. They're so interconnected: We're the Lord's children. We have a responsibility while we're on this earth to help each other, and that really dovetails nicely into my professional background as a social worker, marriage and family therapist, and psychologist. The gospel is the underlying foundation of what I do. I wouldn't trade my path for somebody else's path, because I think David O. McKay saw people like me, people like you, from all over the world."
"In the course of my professional life — professor of social work, peace advocate, and a trainer of social workers throughout the world — I have seen the impact that people from BYU-Hawaii have made in the lives of other people."
Recalling her own student days, she said, "I just loved the people. I loved having Asian roommates, Polynesian roommates, and Caucasian roommates. It was just a beautiful training ground for me as a person, as a mother, as a professional." She also encouraged current students to "take full advantage of the total experience of getting an excellent education, of making life-long friends, having a testimony strengthened, finding a purpose — take advantage of all that."
Of her new appointment, Dr. Hippolite Wright said, "I feel very honored at being chosen for this position. I feel my experiences and training have been leading up to this, and I also deeply believe that this is what the Lord wants for me to be doing right now."
She and her husband, Chris, have a daughter, Morgan, who's a junior at BYU-Hawaii, as well as three younger children still at home who are excited about moving back to Hawaii, where they were born.
— Photo by Eldon McIlwain