Kim Gennaula
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Even though it was a sad last day at KGMB for former news anchor Kim Gennaula, she managed to keep a smile on everyone’s face as she packed up her desk. “I walked in and said, ‘I had the strangest dream last night where I quit my job,’” she says. “And everybody just started cracking up.”
After 15 years at KGMB 9, Gennaula bids a fond farewell to viewers and coworkers to become a philanthropy director at Kapiolani Medical Center.
“I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet,” she says. “It’s really hard to walk away, because everything I ever wanted to accomplish - we’re right at that point.”
But she was able to tear herself away from the news, and has been settling into her new job for the last few months. “So far it’s been wonderful,” she says. “There has already been some community support, and I just love my job over here. It’s going great.”
Gennaula says she felt the need for a change after a recent tour of the hospital’s facilities with her husband, KGMB weatherman Guy Hagi, to see how they could help the medical center. “So we went on this hospital tour, and I was so moved by what was going on,” she says, noting her two children were born at Kapiolani. “As time went on, I started contemplating getting out of TV, and I called (the hospital) and said, ‘I still want to help you,’ and it turned into a full-time position.”
Working alongside fellow philanthropy director Lynne Wooddell, the two women are in charge of handling monetary donations to the hospital. “That’s everything from $50 to $5 million,” she says. “But my main mission over the next year is to let everyone know that Kapiolani is a nonprofit, because most people don’t realize that.”
As a regular 9-to-5 job, it also allows her to spend more time at home with her family. “When I looked at signing another three-year-contract and realized that (her eldest son) would be 10 years old and I would have never have been home with him at night, I just couldn’t do it,” she says, mentioning both she and Guy worked the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift and only spent a half hour with their kids each day. “I’ve accomplished every goal I’ve set at this station, so it’s time for me to stop being selfish and be a mom instead.”
But fear not, Gennaula fans, the former news anchor is not giving up broadcasting completely. “I’m working on a local program with Edgy Lee (a local documentary filmmaker) that’s going to air on Sunday nights on KGMB,” she says. “She’s doing a show called Local Ventures, and I’ll be hosting that with her. So I’m still going to be doing TV stuff.”
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