Alumni News

The award-winning Children’s Healthy Living (CHL) program just got a booster shot, to the tune of $10M. With this game-changing grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Sustainable Agricultural Systems Program, CHL will create a ‘Food Systems Model’ that will identify the drivers of resiliency in food supply chains, and promote them throughout the Pacific Basin.

The five-year, project will start by developing a ‘systems dynamics,’ transdisciplinary, multilevel food and nutrition security resiliency model, explains P.I. Rachel Novotny of the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences. Using this model, the researchers will provide graduate training to future leaders in the region in food and nutrition security model development. Additionally, they will incorporate the model’s key results and tools into community programs, including online access to simulation tools to guide change in multilevel systems.

“Our goals are to increase food and nutrition security, diet quality, and healthy body size among children,” she says. “Long-term, we aim to help prevent chronic disease in households and communities across the U.S.-affiliated Pacific insular area, which includes Alaska, Hawaiʻi, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. The findings and tools will also help guide education and Extension programs.”

Rachel adds, “This grant will help provide the data needed to guide policies so that Pacific food systems can assure the health of children, and thus a healthy future.”

Read the full grant.

With hundreds of invasive pests in the Hawaiian Islands to keep track of, entomologists have their hands full sorting out which insects constitute the highest-impact threat to local Ag – not to mention, getting this information into the hands of growers. With a new grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Mark Wright and Joanna Bloese will improve CTAHR Extension’s ability to disseminate the most current data to farmers and other stakeholders statewide. From the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, they will continue and expand upon Integrated Pest Management (IPM) implementation programs across the most highly valued crops in Hawaiʻi agriculture.

“The improvements include upgrading our online IPM portal (the old Crop Knowledge Master) to a modernized and more accessible format, with updated information and images for hundreds of pests of numerous crops in Hawaiʻi,” says Mark. “We’re developing an app with Mark Thorne (of the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences) for the identification, monitoring, and management of the Two-Lined Spittle Bug, a devastating pest of Hawaiʻi pastures. We’re also collaborating with Angelita Acebes of USDA-ARS to make all our IPM information available through the MyIPM app.”

In addition to delivering IPM Extension materials via Best Management Practice factsheets, online access, and direct interactions with stakeholders, Mark and Joanna will develop predictive forecasts for new, potentially high-impact insect pests. Such preemptive forecasts should help improve surveillance and early detection of pests, and responses to new invasions.

“The grant also supports research on new invasive species,” Mark adds, “such as the Rami moth, a relatively recent arrival that threatens mamaki plants in Hawaiʻi. The grant also supports short-term Extension projects run by Extension agents.”

Read the full grant.

Ka Hana Poʻokela – Graduate Division

Rebecca P. Barone is a graduate student in the Dept. of Molecular Biosciences & Bioengineering (MBBE).
“Arby” is a member of the CTAHR Student Ambassador, Vice President of the CTAHR Alumni Association, and a former Ka Mea Kolo Entomology Club member.

Arby received her B.S. degree from MBBE and is currently pursuing her master of science degree. During her free time, you can find Arby giving back to our CTAHR students and community by serving CTAHR’s mission to educate and serve the people of Hawaiʻi with integrity and excellence.

Ka Hana Poʻokela – Undergradate Division

Nicole Ann Acasio recently graduated with a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences.

While an undergraduate student, Nicole was s a member of the CTAHR Student Ambassador Program, Phi Upsilon Omicron, and a Grow with Us Mentors. She was an exemplary  student, and is an enthusiastic, optimistic, and humble person.

“I’m thankful for winning this award, and I enjoyed my time at CTAHR,” says Nicole. “I enjoyed helping other students who transferred from a community college, like me, and met other students who enjoy supporting the college in the student ambassador program.

She adds, “I feel it is important to support CTAHR as a student ambassador because you get to help in different ways and have opportunities to work with faculty, while making meaningful experiences with everyone in the college and making great friendships.”