KKV’s Finance Warriors

For Dallys It all started when…

Many of us at KKV are emphatically not numbers people.  We are healers, artists, activists, and advocates; nurses, outreach workers, interpreters, and ‘āina workers.  Budgets can make us sweat.  Yet at the end of our weekly COVID Finance call, Puni—one of our resident artists and healers and head of Ho’oulu ʻĀina—enthusiastically says, “this is my FAVORITE meeting of the week!”  Others quickly nod in agreement.

How can that be?  It is a FINANCE meeting after all, typically a hard slow slog of numbers and accountability.

Enter stage right Dallys Vega, our friend and Chief Financial Officer of nearly 13 years, who leaves us this month for her native Panama.  Dallys came to KKV in 2008 when our annual budget was $8 million.  Today, it is $18 million, of which 45% is grants, more than 80 grants in fact.  Eighty grants is crazy making.  Program coordinators—for elder care, youth services, food systems, and ‘aina programs—typically manage ten or more funding sources at any one time. 

Yet somehow under Dally’s leadership, this has all worked.  She and her staff meet each of us exactly where we are, without judgement, building upon our unique capacities or lack thereof.  With her generous spirit and deep experience as CFO for multiple health centers, Dallys has created a culture of fiscal accountability that is kind, patient, and rigorous and that sees finance as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.  At no time was this more evident than during COVID, when accounting staff worked long hours processing paperwork and cutting many hundreds of checks for rental and utility relief for KKV patients.  At that moment, they clearly saw themselves for what they are:  First responders needed by our community. 

Thank you for this Dallys, and for all you have done for us!  You leave KKV in excellent, exemplary financial health and in the capable hands of your well-mentored staff.  We love you, and we will miss you.  We wish you the greatest joy and happiness for this next phase of your life.  Oh, and did you mention that you have a guest room in Panama?

Taking on new challenges

We would like to welcome Chan Hou Lei into his new role as Chief Financial Officer. 

Chan joined the KKV family in 2014 as Accounting manager and became Controller in 2019. Through his soft-spoken, careful, and steady leadership, KKV not only weathered the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but positioned us well for the future.

Chan worked closely with Dallys and shares her passion and commitment to serve the Kalihi community. We can expect Chan to maintain the strong financial oversight needed to ensure KKV continues to grow and thrive. 

Mahalo for taking on this new role!