New Kaua‘i Agent

Emilie Kirk has joined the UH Cooperative Extension team in Kaua‘i County as junior Extension agent and Master Gardener coordinator. She will provide Extension program leadership on edible crops, food safety and security, ag education and production, and leadership development. Her stakeholders include commercial and subsistence agricultural producers, urban and residential gardeners, and youth education programs.

Kirk has a BS in International Agricultural Development and an MS in Soils and Biogeochemistry, both from UC-Davis. She also has specialized training in tropical agriculture and permaculture design. As a grad student, she worked with a large interdisciplinary research team alongside academics, private industry, government researchers, and land managers on a rice research project in the California Delta.

Kirk has also worked with Australian researchers and the Lao Agricultural Extension service as part of a research-for-development project, assessing impacts of on-farm research and Extension capacity-building efforts as well as designing and delivering training workshops for junior Extension staff.

She fell in love with Asia as a 16-year-old exchange student and has shared her passion for the region as a Where There Be Dragons cross-cultural experiential travel instructor.