Speaker

Pam Mills-Packo was born in Hillsboro, Oregon, grew up on a 400-acre irrigated farm in eastern Washington State, and completed her masters degree in San Louis Obispo, California. Pam served as a United Nations project officer and policy analyst, a former Peace Corps high school science & social science teacher in Samoa and a resource conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service on Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Oahu. Pam earned a doctorate degree in Agronomy and Soil Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1989. Her doctoral research facilitated change by empowering members of the Kona tree crop farming community with an agricultural extension, rural sociological approach that resulted in implemented resident-envisioned improvements. Currently, Dr. Mills-Packo owns and operates Resource Management Systems, LLC, an environmental planning firm providing best management practice assessment and action tools to land management decision makers. She serves as the Project Manager of the University of Hawaii-led Kaiaka Bay Watershed Participatory Assessment and Action (WPAA) project. Through this project, Pam, her husband, John Packo, the University of Hawaii, community groups and individual land owners and users are addressing pollution and other pressing concerns in the lower Kaiaka Bay Watershed by adapting Pams WPAA process to maximize the North Shores 21st century watershed restoration opportunities. Engaging Local Schools in Environmental Assessment and Action Results in Sustainable Watershed Management