Vacant seat

Vacant Seat

Vacant Seat

Susan Cordell

Dr. Susan Cordell is a Research Ecologist with 3 decades of experience in tropical ecosystems and conservation of natural resources. She received her master’s and PhD degrees in the Botany Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She joined the USDA FS PSW Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hilo Hawaii as a post-doctoral researcher in 1999 and moved into a permanent scientist position in 2000. She is interested in functional traits of plants and how they can be used to support resilient restored systems, invasive species and nature-based solutions for conservation. Susan recently returned to her role as a research ecologist following a 7-year hiatus where she served as the Director of the Institute. 

Susan joined the PAC in 2003 and serves on the conservation committee. I am committed to providing science based information to support the goals of the PWW Management plan. She joined the PAC because she cares deeply about Hawaiian Ecosystems and tropical dry forests have a special place in her heart. Multi-use landscapes require multi-partner engagement and expertise and Susan tries her best to offer her scientific expertise to the council to best protect this unique resource.

Susan can be reached at susan.cordell@usda.gov.

Vacant seat

Mary Metcalf

Mary’s formal career was in engineering and strategic planning, and she retired to Hawaiʻi in 2005 to fulfill a lifelong dream of helping to restore and protect Hawaiʻi’s threatened ecosystems. She volunteers regularly to restore native forests at Puʻuwaʻawaʻa and other locations in West Hawaii, and leads the Ka‘ahahui ‘o Ka Nahelehele non-profit dedicated to dry forest preservation. Mary has been leveraging her passion and many years hiking in nature to assist the PAC with recreation planning at Puʻuwaʻawaʻa.

Mary can be reached at info@drylandforest.org. 

Bob Okawa

Aloha, Bob Okawa here. I come to PWW with several stops and lives along the way. I am a child of Palolo ahupua’a in the Kona Moku of O’ahu, nurtured in the Maui Moku of Kula and Hamakuapoko, and for the last 40 years of O’oma in the Kona Moku of Hawaii Island. Along the way, I had several “lives” and experiences on several islands that have shaped my ethos and ethics of land, wildlife, conservation, culture, and ecology. My formal education and training in Microbiology gives me appreciation of small to large life forms and the integration and relationships around us.

I have been a participant of the “outdoors” from childhood in rural Palolo through my years on Maui and Hawaii Island and have been part of the changes from rural, through agriculture and urban development that surround us all.

I have been a user of Pu’u wa’awa’a since it was first open to the public for bird hunting, then mammal hunting; allowing me to walk many areas of the PWW, especially the lands mauka of the highway, including the Forest Bird Sanctuary. Those opportunities allowed me close observation of the varied landscapes and resultant plants and trees; and to gain some perspective of the varied ecological pockets of PWW.

Therefore, I welcomed the opportunity to join the PAC when first organized in 2002 as a “Recreational Use Specialist”. I came with experiences on the ground, and background of being a member of Na Ala Hele Advisory Council of the DLNR which addressed similar situations.