East-West Center (EWC) President Suzanne Vares-Lum announced that she will be leaving the center at the end of this year to accept a Department of Defense appointment to head the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) located in Waikīkī.
Former EWC Board of Governors Chair and longtime president of Punahou School James Scott will serve as the center’s interim president while the board undertakes a search for a permanent successor, a process that is expected to take approximately six months. The board has retained the executive search firm of Isaacson, Miller to assist with the search.
“It is with a heavy heart that I will be moving on from the East-West Center, whose amazing staff and community have made my time here some of the most professionally and personally rewarding of my life,” Vares-Lum, a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumna, wrote in a message to the center’s staff and community. “Making the decision to depart this great institution was very difficult, but ultimately I believe this new appointment is the best opportunity for me to draw on my cumulative experiences toward making a positive impact on our region.”
During Vares-Lum’s three-year tenure at EWC, she oversaw the center’s recovery from pandemic lockdowns and worked closely with the institution’s board, staff, and stakeholders to implement EWC’s first new formal strategic plan in nearly two decades. Both government and private funding have also increased, and enrollment in EWC’s programs have reached some of the highest levels in several decades.
“While the EWC Board of Governors is pained by President Vares-Lum’s decision to step down, we certainly respect her reasons for doing so in the interests of serving our country and our region,” EWC Board Chairman and former Hawaiʻi Gov. John Waiheʻe said. “We are thankful to Jim Scott for agreeing to step in as interim president, and grateful for the remarkable energy Suzy has brought to her service at the Center, restoring its vitality in the wake of the pandemic and setting it on a steady course for the future.”
Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green, who is an ex officio member of the EWC’s board and is responsible for appointing five of its other members, added, “Suzy’s remarkable tenure as the first woman and first Native Hawaiian President of the East-West Center has been a reflection of her inspiring vision, energy, and aloha. Thanks to her leadership, the Center has enjoyed an upwelling of support in recent years, and she leaves it well-positioned as a stronger, more vital institution. Although she will surely be missed at the Center, we are fortunate that she will remain a pillar of our state’s foreign policy community in her new role at APCSS.”
In 2021, Vares-Lum became the first woman and first Native Hawaiian to lead EWC. Born and raised in Wahiawā, Vares-Lum earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master of education in teaching from UH Mānoa, and a master of strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. In 2019, she became a National Security Fellow of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and she is also an alumna of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies.
As a major general in the U.S. Army, Vares-Lum advised the most senior officials at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, where she maintained key relationships among nations within the Asia Pacific Region. She retired from the military in April 2021, after 34 years of service.
