Graduate Students
Current Graduate Students and postdocs
Julia Douglas (PhD student): The ecology and conservation of epiphytes in an era of global change [Fulbright Fellow]
Tressa Hoppe (PhD student): “I ola ‘oe, I ola mākou nei”: Exploring facilitation of seedling recruitment and other potential ecological benefits of native ferns [Haoli Mau Loa Foundation Fellow, ANRPO fellow]
Kassie Jensen (PhD student)
Matt Kaho'ohanohano (PhD student): Biocultural restoration of He'eia (NERR fellow)
Lauren Nerfa (PhD student): Human dimensions and ecological outcomes of community-based forest restoration in Hawaiʻ i [NSERC fellow]
Smrity Ramavarapu (PhD student): Social-ecological impacts of indigenous fire practices [East West Center Graduate Fellow]
Maile Wong (PhD Student) [NSF GRFP fellow, Harold St John Fellow): I malu kākou i ka hālau loa: Remembering Positive Plant-Plant Relationships to Inform Hybrid Forest Restoration.
Past Graduate Students (Committee Chair)
PhD students
Ashley McGuigan . 2022. Resilience of Fijian agroecosystems [NSF Graduate research fellow; Fulbright fellow 2016-2017]
Zoe Hastings 2021. Understanding the potential for restoration through agroforestry in Hawai'i [NSF Graduate research fellow]
Georgia Hart 2019. Influence of fire severity, climate change and harvest on the population dynamics and harvest quality of beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax Melanthiaceae) in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. [US Joint Fire Science awardee; AAUW Fellow; NSF Graduate Research fellow]
Katie Kamelamela 2019: Contemporary Hawaii Non-Timber Forest Plant Gathering Practices. PhD dissertation [Ford Foundation Fellow]
Gioconda Lopez 2019:Effects of wild harvest on a commercially important seaweed: a case-study of Mazaaella lamanariodes (Rhodophyta, Gigartinaceae, in South-Central Chile . [Conacyt Graduate Fellow]
Kurashima, Natalie. 2016. Hōʻuluʻulu: The biocultural restoration of indigenous agroecosystems in Hawaiʻi. PhD dissertation. [Ford Foundation Fellow and Kohala Mellon Fellow]
Nāmaka Whitehead. 2015. Ku ka maile: Ethnobotany, harvest effects and recruitment limitation in maile, Alyxia stellata (Apocynaceae). PhD dissertation. [EPA STAR fellow]
Vandana Krisnamurthy. 2014. Population dynamics, trade and conservation of the multi-use threatened endemic cycads, Cycas circinalis and C. indica, L., in South India. PhD dissertation. [East West Center Graduate Fellow]
Anita Varghese. 2014. The ecology of black dammar (Canarium strictum) and community-based ecosystem monitoring in the Western Ghats, India. PhD dissertation. [East West Center Graduate Fellow]
Shimona Quaqzi 2013. Mimicking nature: traditional agroforestry as a conservation strategy Bangladesh. PhD Dissertation. [East West Center Graduate Fellow]
Lisa Mandle 2012. Balancing biodiversity and human land use: effects of fire, grazing and harvest on plant individuals, populations and communities in the Western Ghats, India. PhD Dissertation [NSF Graduate Research Fellow]
Tamara Wong. 2011. The curious case of maile (Alyxia stellata): lessons in ecotypes, population viability and restoration. PhD dissertation.
Isabel Schmidt 2011:Effects of local ecological knowledge, harvest and fire on golden-grass (Syngonanthus nitens, Eriocaulaceae), a non-timber forest product (NTFP) species from the Brazilian savanna. PhD dissertation. [Fulbright/Capes Graduate Fellow]
Tamia Souto. 2009. Ethnobotanical knowledge and forest reliance of three rural non-indigenous communities in the Lower Caura River, Southern Venezuela. PhD dissertation. [NSF Graduate Research Fellow]
Orou Gaoue Gande. 2008. Assessing the impacts of bark and foliage harvest on the threatened, multipurpose tree Khaya senegalensis in Benin, West Africa. PhD dissertation.
Bambang Hariyadi. 2008. The entwined tree: Traditional natural resource management of Serampas, Jambi, Indonesia. PhD dissertation. [Ford Foundation/East West Center Graduate Fellow]
MS students
Miles Thomas 2021. Distribution, habitat and host bias of the genus Adenophorus Gaudich. (Polypodiaceae) in the Koʻolau Mountains, Oʻahu. [Haoli Mau Loa Foundation Fellow]
Aimee Sato. 2020. Biocultural restoration of Hawaiian dry forests. MS thesis. [Haoli Mau Loa Foundation Fellow]
Reko Libby 2018.Drivers of survival and growth of five endemic and endangered Hawaiian dry forest species. MS thesis.
Emily Grave 2018. Pollination ecology and regeneration status of an iconic Hawaiian dry forest tree: wiliwili, Erythrina sandwicensis (Fabaceae). MS thesis.
Georgia Hart. 2012. Contemporary use and health benefits of wild gathered edible macroalgae (limu) on O‘ahu Island. MS thesis. [NSF Graduate Research Fellow]
Katie Kamelamela. 2011. Contemporary Native Hawaiian gathering practices, with a focus on adaptation of the imu. MS thesis.
Laura Weiss. 2008. Population ecology and sustainability of mopane (Colophospermum mopane) seed harvesting in Namibia. MS thesis. [EPA STAR Fellow]
Leyla Cabugos. 2008. An evaluation of native plant species for use in green roofs and storm water management in Hawai`i. MS thesis
Kevin Janni. 2007. Ethnoecology and regeneration of coca fallows and secondary forests in the Nor Yungas Bolivia and implications for conservation. MS thesis.
Dana Crompton. 2007. The effects of harvest on population structure of Asterocaryum mexicanum and its potential for understory cultivation in Mexico. MS thesis.
Ho’ala Fraiola. 2005. Effects of fire on patterns of plant regeneration in the co-managed Waianae Kai Forest Reserve, O‘ahu. MS.
Clay Trauernicht. 2004. Effects of cultivation of the understory palm, Chameadorea hooperiana on forest community structure & patterns of regeneration in a Mexican tropical rainforest. MS thesis. [EPA STAR Fellow].