The 2023 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Alumnus goes to Ken Kamiya, founder of Kamiya Gold, Inc. Since graduating from CTAHR in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Tropical Crop Production, Ken has shown a significant and lasting impact in the local papaya industry, applying his expertise in agriculture and knowledge in collaboration with CTAHR. He is an exemplary individual and we are proud he is our alumnus; his dedication to our college, the Hawaiʻi agriculture industry, economic vitality, and people is immeasurable. 

Normally celebrated at the CTAHR Annual Banquet, this year’s Dean’s Award recipients will be honored here, on your laptops and tablets, and with their names carved into the plaques that adorn Gilmore Hall. This year’s 2020 Outstanding Alumnus Award goes to Steve Sato.

Besides working as an assistant horticulturist at Lyon Arboretum, David Shepard is the designer of his own line of men’s and women’s clothing, which uses place-based Hawaiian botanical prints to raise awareness of and funding for conservation causes. Now the alumnus of CTAHR’s Deptartment of Tropical Plants and Soil Sciences has begun creating tropical-themed face masks.

CTAHR dietetics alumnae Shelley Wong and Lucia Amore, currently medical students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, are continuing the CTAHR tradition of service! They are on track to graduate as M.D.s next year, but right now they’re helping make things a little easier for classmates who graduated in 2019—young doctors whose already exhausting and stressful intern year is exacerbated by COVID-19.

Any answer to the question “Can We Ever Eat All Local in Hawai‘i?,” the subject of a recent Honolulu Magazine article, depends significantly on CTAHR’s work in education, research, and community outreach. So it’s fitting that the article features several members of the CTAHR ‘ohana, including ag economist and assistant Extension agent Sarah Rehkamp, MS alumnus Gabe Sachter-Smith, and GoFarm Hawai‘i graduate Rob Barreca.