Over the past 30 years, Dr. Sylvia Yuen has dedicated her professional career and personal life to serving Hawai‘i’s families and communities. Few alumni of CTAHR have gained the respect of their colleagues, students, university administrators, business leaders, politicians, and the general community as has Sylvia, and even fewer can lay claim to the level of success that she has achieved in research, teaching, extension, and university administration.
Sylvia graduated from the University of Hawai‘i in 1964 with a degree in home economics education. She went on to receive a master’s degree in child development from the University of Illinois and returned to UH to gain a PhD degree in psychology. Sylvia has spent the majority of her professional career at UH Ma¯noa, serving in the following capacities:
Faculty member and chair, Department of Human DevelopmentEmployee Relations Administrator for the UH system Director of UH-Manoa’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Associate dean for academic affairs, CTAHRInterim dean, CTAHRDirector, Center on the Family
Sylvia was the second woman to serve as Associate Dean and the first woman to serve as Interim Dean of CTAHR since its founding in 1907. She is also the first female and the first person from the Human Resources side of the college to receive CTAHR’s Outstanding Alumni award.
In CTAHR, Sylvia secured funds and launched many new programs, including the
Multicultural Scholars Program, which attracted new undergraduate minority students to career opportunities in agriculture, nutrition, and human resourcesHawaii International Program, a travel-abroad program for students and faculty that focused on global food and agricultural systemsNSF Young Scholars Pacific Region Program, which recruited academically talented high-school students from Hawai‘i and the American Pacific to participate in CTAHR’s research programsCTAHR Student Research Symposium, a venue for students to present research findings in a professional environment
Sylvia is a social scientist of national stature. More recently, as director of the Center on the Family, she has been recognized for leading multidisciplinary approaches to promote the well being of children, families, and the aging in Hawai‘i. Under her leadership, the Center on the Family has grown to be a premier research and extension unit that houses 10 faculty members and 35 grant-supported project staff and graduate students. The Center is recognized nationally and locally for its data on Hawai‘i’s people. As a principal or coprincipal investigator, she has garnered more than $22 million in grants and contracts. Sylvia has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and more than 125 technical reports, educational outreach publications, and media pieces. Her contributions to the instructional mission of the college have been equally impressive, and have brought her three excellence-in-teaching awards.
Sylvia’s contribution to the community goes well beyond her accomplishments in the Center of the Family. At the national level, she served as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation and as an officer of the National Council on Aging and the National Asian-Pacific Center on Aging Board of Directors. In Hawai‘i, she presently serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Institute for Human Services, Honolulu Community Action Program, Asia-U.S. Partnership Advisory Board, and American Judicature Society-Hawaii Chapter. She was recently selected as the 2010 Maryknoll High School Outstanding Alumna.
Dr. Sylvia Yuen has made outstanding contributions to the university and the state and to countless families in Hawai‘i. We are proud to honor her as the CTAHR Outstanding Alumna of 2010.
