Robert Franco

Professional Bio:

For 30 years, Dr. Robert Franco has been an ecological and demographic anthropologist focusing on contemporary Hawaiian, Samoan, and Pacific Islander educational, employment, health, environmental, and cultural issues. He has published scholarly and policy research on Samoan political and cultural change, the meaning and management of water in ancient Hawaii, and sociocultural factors affecting Pacific tuna fisheries. In 2009, he consulted with a leading Samoan chief and the American Samoa Humanities Council on the editing and publication of the territory’s first written history, a required 9th grade textbook.

He currently serves as the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Kapiolani Community College, University of Hawaii. The college bears the name of Queen Julia Kapiolani, the penultimate female monarch of the sovereign nation of Hawaii. He takes primary responsibility for campus strategic and long-term planning, grants writing and development, institutional research, assessment and evaluation, and accreditation.