Verna Tukuafu graduated from Brigham Young University–Hawaii in 1999 with a degree in business management. Today, she serves as Area Manager for BYU–Pathway Worldwide across the Pacific region. A devoted mother of three, Verna's journey has been shaped by faith, resilience, and an unwavering belief that education can transform lives. Through seasons of joy and heartbreak, she has learned to trust God's hand in her life and to help others discover their own divine potential.
Gospel at Home
"BYU–Hawaii was like gospel in our home," Tukuafu says. "That's all we talked about."
It makes sense, given that Verna was born in Laie while her parents, both BYU–Hawaii alumni, were students at BYU–Hawaii. Making her, as she puts it with a laugh, "one of the TVA babies." When she was five years old, her father was called to serve in the Presiding Bishopric Office in Tonga, and the family returned to the islands, where she would spend most of her childhood.
Growing up in Tonga, Verna attended Liahona High School, where she graduated in 1994. She heard stories of BYU–Hawaii, of lifelong friendships, spiritual growth, and educational opportunities that had changed the course of her parents' lives.
By the time Tukuafu received her diploma from Liahona, there was only one school she planned to attend: BYU–Hawaii.
The Dream She Danced Into
One experience that solidified that dream for her was when a Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) performance team visited Tonga during the Church’s centennial celebration in 1991, while she was still in high school. "They were very articulate in the way they explained things, they dressed very well, and they just looked like they had so much fun," she recalls. "I thought to myself, that's going to be me one day. I can't wait to go to school in Hawaii so I can talk like them, dress like them, and be happy like them."
She arrived at BYU–Hawaii in the fall of 1995 and wasted no time. She performed in the Polynesian Cultural Center's night show and worked days as a student aide in the Office of Vice President of Academics Alani Durrant. She attended class. She held a church calling. She had a social life. She was, by any measure, doing a lot.
"You go from doing absolutely nothing to all of a sudden your life is so busy," she says. Coming from Tonga, where life centered around community and family, she found herself navigating a very different culture. "In the islands, everyone takes care of everybody. You come here, and you still have a community, but there's also that aspect of having to figure things out for yourself."
Like many international students, she struggled with homesickness. She missed the food, the culture, and the familiarity of home. But she was never alone.
Professors, Church leaders, supervisors, and friends became her support system. Her roommate, Christina (Mauigoa) Akanoa, now a professor at BYU–Hawaii, encouraged her through difficult moments. Bishop Rene Yang offered guidance and priesthood blessings. At the PCC, Keith Awai, Delsa Moe, and David Tiave continually encouraged her to keep moving forward. In the Academic Vice President's Office, Olani Durrant, Nedra Overstreet, and Joanna Thompson became trusted mentors and cheerleaders.
"We had our little family unit in the dorms," she says. "Whenever you thought you couldn't do it anymore, somebody would step in and remind you that you were closer than you thought."
BYU–Hawaii would become more than a university. It was where she met her husband, Sione, and where the foundation of her future was built.
Building a Career Across the Pacific
Verna and Sione were married and sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple and welcomed their first daughter, Lose. Soon after, they returned to Tonga with dreams of building a family and serving the community they loved. Over the next two decades, those dreams would grow into a life centered on faith, family, and service.
As their family grew, so did Tukuafu's opportunities to serve. Throughout her career, she served in a variety of leadership and administrative roles for the Church, including Human Resources Manager for the Tonga Service Center and Regional Welfare and Self Reliance Manager. In that role, she became the first woman to serve as a manager in Welfare and Self Reliance in Tonga and the first woman to serve in that role across the Pacific.
Her responsibilities eventually expanded to include Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia. Working closely with local leaders, Church employees, and community partners, she helped individuals and families strengthen self reliance through education, employment, and workforce development opportunities.
One of the defining experiences of her service came in 2007, when she helped coordinate logistics for the rededication of the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple. The experience deepened her testimony of service and reinforced her belief that meaningful work is often found in helping others draw closer to God.
Yet some of the work closest to her heart happened outside of her formal responsibilities.
Remembering her own transition from Tonga to BYU–Hawaii, Tukuafu began mentoring young students who hoped to follow a similar path. She wanted them to arrive prepared, not only academically but also emotionally and spiritually.
"I was trying to figure out how to help students be more prepared when they arrived in Hawaii," she says. "I wanted them to know what to expect so they weren't as homesick and could focus on becoming successful."
From 2015 to 2020, she voluntarily coached and mentored prospective students, helping them navigate university life before they ever stepped on campus. For Tukuafu, it was an opportunity to give back to the institution that had helped shape her own future and to help others see the possibilities that education could unlock in their lives.
When Home Became Unreachable
In early 2020, Tukuafu and her family traveled to Hawaii for what was supposed to be a short spring break visit. Their daughter, Lose, was attending BYU–Hawaii and preparing to serve a mission. Tukuafu and her husband, Sione, looked forward to showing their younger children, Aisake and Eveline, the place where their story had begun. Then the world changed. Within days of their arrival, borders closed as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe. Tonga would become one of the last countries in the world to reopen, leaving the family unexpectedly stranded thousands of miles from home.
They relocated temporarily to Utah, hoping to wait out a brief disruption. Instead, their lives changed forever. In August 2020, Lose left to serve a mission in San Jose, California. A month later, Sione contracted COVID-19. By October, he had passed away. The loss was devastating. Far from home and unable to return to Tonga, Tukuafu suddenly found herself navigating grief while caring for her family and trying to make sense of an uncertain future.
Yet even in the midst of heartbreak, she chose to keep moving forward. Just one day after Sione's funeral, Tukuafu submitted the final paper for her MBA. Completing her degree during one of the darkest moments of her life became a quiet but powerful act of faith, a declaration that while her life had changed forever, her future was not over.
Though Tonga's borders remained closed for nearly two more years, Tukuafu pressed forward, leaning on her faith, her family, and the conviction that God still had a purpose for her life. "There's still no closure," she says softly. "But I do believe the Lord is mindful of each and every one of us."
Access to Truth and Light
The day after Sione passed away, another unexpected call came, one that would ultimately shape the next chapter of Tukuafu's life. BYU–Pathway Worldwide reached out and invited her to serve as an Area Manager. At a time when her world had been turned upside down, the opportunity felt both overwhelming and providential.
"I honestly didn't know what I was doing," she says. "I was just going by faith." Just days after Sione's funeral, Tukuafu accepted the invitation to join BYU–Pathway Worldwide, officially beginning her new role in December 2020. Looking back on that season, she recalls, "I just remember thinking, I have no idea what's going to happen to me after this. We buried my husband here, and that's when I decided Utah was going to be home."
What began as an unexpected opportunity became a new chapter of purpose and service. BYU–Pathway Worldwide is the Church's online higher education program, designed to make affordable, spiritually based education accessible to individuals worldwide who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend a traditional university. As Area Manager, Tukuafu oversees the program's expansion and operations across a vast, culturally diverse region.
Under her leadership, BYU–Pathway Worldwide has expanded significantly throughout the Pacific, creating educational and employment opportunities for individuals seeking a better future for themselves and their families. Through partnerships with missions, Church schools, government leaders, employers, and community organizations, thousands of students have gained access to education, employment pathways, and opportunities that were once beyond reach.
For Tukuafu, the work feels deeply personal. As a single mother, she often reflects on the impact her education has had on her family. "You are being saved by my education," she tells her children. "If I didn't have an education, I don't know if you would have the life you're living today."
To Tukuafu, education is far more than earning a degree. "It gives you information that helps you transform. It prepares you spiritually and temporally. It helps you develop faith, build confidence, and create opportunities to provide for your family." In many ways, she is doing on a larger scale what she once did one student at a time, helping people discover what is possible.
The Why Behind Everything
Tukuafu's advice to students begins with identity. "Know that you are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father," she says. "When you understand why you're doing what you're doing, there is divine potential you can unlock. And when you understand that, you're able to do almost anything."
She encourages students to pursue work they genuinely enjoy, remembering her years dancing at the Polynesian Cultural Center. "I loved to dance. Going to the night show didn't feel like a job because it was something I already loved doing."
And when challenges come, as they inevitably do, she hopes students remember they do not face them alone. "The Lord is always there. When you pray and ask Him for help, He will guide you through the challenges you're facing."
For Tukuafu, education has always been about more than degrees or careers. It is about helping people discover who they can become. Whether she is working with a high school student in Tonga, a missionary preparing for life after service, or a parent trying to build a better future for their family, she believes education opens doors spiritually, temporally, and eternally.
BYU–Hawaii was never just a school. It was where her parents' story began, where her own journey took shape, and where she discovered a vision for her future.
"It shaped me into who I am today," she says. "BYU–Hawaii gave me an education, but it also gave me confidence, purpose, and a vision of what was possible. Everything I've been able to accomplish since then, raising my children, serving others, and creating opportunities for students across the Pacific, traces back to the foundation that was built here. I will always be grateful for that gift and for the opportunity to help others discover it for themselves."
