Dr. Elliott Parsons, Specialist, Pacific Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change Management Network, Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Dr. Elliott Parsons is a specialist with the Pacific Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (Pacific RISCC) Management Network at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He has worked with Pacific RISCC since 2022, and he has almost 15 years of experience working in conservation, management, and research in Hawaiʻi. Dr. Parsons holds a Ph.D. in Fish & Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and a B.A. in Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and he most recently led the Nāpuʻu Conservation Project (NCP) at Puʻuwaʻawaʻa in North Kona for 12 years for the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources. In addition to his conservation work, Dr. Parsons taught both undergraduate and graduate wildlife science courses at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo between 2016 and 2023.

Olivia Jarvis, Graduate Student at University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Research Assistant at the Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization (SDAV) Lab
Olivia Jarvis is currently a graduate student at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo pursuing her Master’s of Science degree in Tropical Biology and Environmental Science. She recently earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Environmental Science from UH Hilo in 2022. Olivia’s thesis work is focused on exploring remote sensing methods such as RGB aerial imagery and LiDAR data to detect invasive strawberry guava trees on Hawai‘i Island. She is also currently working as a research assistant for the Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization lab at UH Hilo with her advisor Dr. Ryan Perroy. She supports other remote sensing work including photogrammetry with imagery taken via small unmanned aerial systems and helicopters, invasive species detection with object detection machine learning, and the deployment and monitoring of biocontrol for strawberry guava trees.