Who's Gonna Be There?

Featured guest speaker

Joshua Atwood- Hawai‘i Forestry and Wildlife

Josh Atwood is the Statewide Information & Education Specialist for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife at the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, where he has worked since 2011. He began his environmental education career writing an educational children’s book for the Maine Coastal Program and has led outdoor and environmental education programs in Hawaiʻi, Maine, Alaska, Wyoming, Florida, and Switzerland. He interned with the Oʻahu Invasive Species Committee and Bishop Museum as part of his graduate fellowship in interdisciplinary research, and then served as the Invasive Species Coordinator for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife for ten years.

In his current role, he works with Education Specialists across Hawaiʻi to develop educational programs, products, and communication tools to help people connect with and care for Hawaiʻi’s natural resources.

Featured guest speaker

Katie Mulliken- USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Katie was born in Hawai‘i and raised in Volcano Village just a few miles away from Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Katie is now a geologist and the Public Information Officer for the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). She works closely with HVO scientists, seismic analysts, field engineers, network managers, and the Scientist-in-Charge, to help HVO communicate about the work we do monitoring earthquakes, eruptions, and associated hazards in Hawai‘i.

Katie manages the weekly "Volcano Watch" column, coordinates social and traditional media, and administers HVO website content. Every January, Katie lead "Volcano Awareness Month" during which HVO and partners provide in-person events around the Island of Hawaiʻi. Katie has been involved in eruption response efforts since 2018. 

Featured guest speaker

Jody Anastasio- Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

Jody Anastasio is the Education Specialist and acting Interpretation and Education Program Manager at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. She has been with NPS for 20 years, starting at Cape Cod National Seashore.

In 2022 she received the NPS Excellence in Education award for the "Earth, Sea, Sky" program. She has a B.A. in Semiotics from Brown University and M.S. in Environmental Science from Antioch University.

Prior to NPS she worked at non-profit environmental education organizations around the country and in media production.

Featured guest speaker

Kanesa Seraphin- Sea Grant

Kanesa Seraphin is director of the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant Center for Marine Science Education. She earned her PhD in Zoology for research on population biology and nursery habitat use of scalloped hammerhead sharks. Kanesa developed educational programs to share her research; has taught high school biology and she subsequently researched, developed and tested the curriculum as part of the College of Education’s Curriculum Research & Development Group. Kanesa has been full-time with Hawaiʻi Sea Grant since 2018. She loves telling ocean science stories and co-produces the award-winning Voice of the Sea television and online series.

Kanesa is an ocean athlete and mom. She found her true athletic love in ocean sports and she loves to paddle any water craft, to surf and bodyboard big waves. Kanesa is best known for the title of 8-time World Champion at the M2O (Moloka’i to Oahu) Paddleboard Championships. Kanesa held the women’s stock board record for 15 years, inspiring countless athletes through her determination and excellence. Kanesa has been inducted into the Hawaiʻi Waterman Hall of Fame. This honors and celebrates Hawaiʻi’s greatest watermen and water women whose lives have been dedicated to inspiring a profound connection between kamaʻāina and the ocean. 

Featured guest speaker

Jeff Drazen- School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology

Dr. Jeff Drazen is a professor in the Department of Oceanography in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He is recognized internationally for his research on food-webs and communities of the deep sea, particularly fishes. His work and that of his students and postdocs has helped elucidate the energetic strategies of deep-sea fishes, identified important pathways in deep-sea food webs, explored the ecology of hadal trenches, and helped evaluate the environmental risks of deep-sea mining. His work has shown the overlap between deep-sea mining and fisheries, included leading the first midwater ecosystem baseline in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, and he has shared his results several times as a speaker at meetings of the International Seabed Authority. He has authored and coauthored over 150 scientific articles and book chapters, and he has participated in more than 60 research cruises with over 1000 days at sea, often as chief scientist.