The Office of Hawaiian Affairs announced yesterday that it has named Stanton K. Enomoto as chief operating officer to help lead the organization in its new strategic plan to better serve Hawaiians while transforming OHA into a more streamlined, performance-based organization.

“Stanton will play a crucial role in leading OHA in its transition as we realign our organizational structure to meet the goals of OHA’s new strategic plan,” said OHA Administrator Clyde Namu‘o. “OHA plans to move quickly to put in place the structure needed to meet our new goals, and his leadership will be invaluable in making sure we are ready to move forward at the beginning of 2010.”

The strategic plan identifies three critical roles for OHA: advocacy, research and asset management. In addition, OHA will institute strict performance based criteria that will evaluate the impact of its work for Native Hawaiians based on measurable results. Under its new strategic plan, OHA will shift its focus to promoting systemic change in six priority areas: economic self-sufficiency, health, education, culture, land and water (‘aina) and governance.
Enomoto will be responsible for managing OHA’s day-to-day activities as well as all of the operations necessary to execute OHA’s strategic plan, announced Sept. 23. Under the plan, OHA is shifting its focus from serving individual needs to applying its resources to programs and activities that will lead to systemic change and maximize the impact for all Hawaiians.

Enomoto is currently special assistant to the OHA administrator, responsible for strategic and organizational planning. Since 2006, he has served as an adviser to OHA’s senior leadership, a special projects manager, and a technical and administrative resource person for OHA division managers.

He was raised on Maui, attended Kamehameha Schools and received his bachelor’s degree in geology and environmental studies from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn., in 1989.