UH West Oahu, Leeward CC and JPAC/CIL at Hickam AFB solidify partnership

Posted: May 23, 2012

UH West O‘ahu, Leeward Community College and the Joint Prisoners of War (POW)/Missing in Action (MIA) Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding recognizing a partnership between the three institutions and the benefits of academic exchange and cooperation.

 

The new agreement expands UH West O‘ahu’s current partnership with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Lab (JPAC/CIL). In addition to JPAC/CIL instructors serving as lecturers teaching forensic anthropology courses at UH West O‘ahu, students and faculty are now able to attend courses and training at the JPAC/CIL Forensic Science Academy at Hickam Air Force Base. UH West O‘ahu and Leeward Community College faculty members are listed as adjunct faculty at JPAC/CIL and JPAC/CIL staff will utilize UH West O‘ahu and Leeward Community College campuses for research and training.

 

This partnership reinforces the ties between each organization and will further the academic development of all facilities involved. It also provides forensic anthropology students opportunities to learn in a field and laboratory environment at JPAC/CIL, the most prestigious forensic anthropology lab in the nation.

 

“JPAC will be able to utilize the local facilities and talent here, and we’re very happy to bring this collaboration together,” said Dr. Bob Mann, who leads the Forensic Science Academy.

 

"The UHWO and LCC campuses that offer this joint Certificate in Applied Forensic Anthropology have been so very fortunate to have the world class JPAC/CIL facilities and staff located at nearby Hickam AFB, " said UH West O‘ahu’s Dr. Suzanne Falgout. "Many of our students complete senior culminating practicums there, and several have been further selected for prestigious Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellowships or Department of Defense internships. This new Memorandum of Understanding strengthens this relationship between these three institutions, and we look forward to developing this partnership further in the years to come."

 

 

JPAC/CIL’s primary mission is the identification of U.S. war dead. CIL teams have traveled to Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Iraq, the Pentagon after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and all over the world conducting recovery missions.

 

UH West O‘ahu became a four-year, regional comprehensive university when it served its first class of freshmen in fall 2007. The University offers quality education, small classes and personalized attention at convenient locations. Construction began in August 2010 on the first phase of a new, state-of-the-art UH West O‘ahu campus in the City of Kapolei. It is expected to serve approximately 2,000 students for fall 2012 classes. For more information, visit uhwo.hawaii.edu, twitter.com/uhwestoahu, facebook.com/uhwestoahu or call 454-4700 or toll-free (866) 299-8656.