Kelly Kitashima embraces life’s journey. She understands that there is not necessarily one set path for someone’s life and has certainly found that to be true for herself

Kitashima grew up on Oahu and graduated from Kamehameha Schools. She attended the University of Hawaii for two years and then transferred to University of Nevada Las Vegas where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management. While attending college, Kitashima also began her career in hospitality working at the MGM Grand full-time.

“Once I got to Vegas I think is when I absolutely fell in love with the industry after seeing all the excitement,” said Kitashima. “I just knew that if I could take back some of the skills that I learned there then I could make an impact here locally in Hawaii.”

After working as the National Sales Manager and Associate Director of Catering and Convention Services at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for a little over four and a half years, Kitashima brought her skills back to Hawaii. She grew her talents while working for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, The Modern Honolulu, Hyatt Hotels, and The Kahala Hotel and Resort.

While Kitashima’s story may appear on paper as though it was all planned for, that is not completely true. Kitashima noticed that the hospitality industry had started to become the target, or ‘bail out’ as she calls it, for the rail here on Oahu. She also was bothered by the tourism tax increase and learned that other fees within the industry were possibly going to increase as well. She started questioning why the industry was always the first to be targeted in this way.
“This really led me to do a lot of personal research on my own,” said Kitashima.

The more she learned, the more passionate she felt that she had to do something about what she was discovering. She decided to take a leave of absence from her career and pursue action.

“Out of a lot of questions and answers with several great mentors, I decided to take that enormous leap of faith and run for our local city council” said Kitashima.

Kitashima became a city council candidate and ran from February 2018 to November 2018. She ended up being just shy of winning the election. Although, with all of her passion, motivation, and drive Kitashima is not putting off running again in the future.

“I have no regrets about running. I learned so much and never in my years did I ever think I would have ever gone on that journey, but I felt like I had to,” said Kitashima.

Running for City Council is not the only path Kitashima has walked down that has been a surprise to her. In 2015, one of her close friends and Kitashima’s husband signed her up for the Mrs. Hawaii United States Pageant.

“When my friend first mentioned it to me I was like, ‘oh no, that is definitely not something on my bucket list.’ But long story short they ended up signing me up without me knowing,” said Kitashima.

Kitashima did not take the pageant seriously. She did not invest in proper clothing for the pageant and thought of herself as the ‘unpolished pageant girl.’ But when she did not place in the pageant, she was actually crushed.
“I’m an extremely competitive person so when I didn’t place, I was really upset!” said Kitashima. “So the next year in 2016, I signed up again and actually took it seriously that time and ended up winning the title of Mrs. Hawaii United States 2016.”

Now-a-days, Kitashima spends her time as Director of Sales for the new Residence Inn by Marriott, Oahu Kapolei that opened in October 2019. There are many aspects that she enjoys about her job, but taking care of the staff is what she loves most.

“I am a mother of two young kids and I feel like my motherly nature kind of transfers over into my job sometimes,” said Kitashima. “If I do a great job every day, it positively affects the team and really that’s what drives me and motivates me every day to come in to work knowing this role has such a positive effect on all departments.”

Working in the role as Director of Sales for a new upcoming hotel keeps Kitashima extremely busy, but when she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family. She and her husband are very family-oriented and recently purchased a tiny home where they spend time with their children on the weekends. With all of Kitashima’s exciting endeavors, it’s no surprise that she spends her weekends in a tiny home!