HPU HONORS FACULTY AND STAFF WITH 2025-2026 'GOLDEN APPLE AWARDS'

The HPU Golden Apple Awards were presented on May 15, 2026, recognizing HPU faculty and staff for their contributions to teaching, scholarship, and service to the University. The annual celebration honors those whose work advances HPU's academic mission.

Golden Apple recipients were nominated by either faculty, staff, or students. The awards are presented on behalf of the HPU Scholarship and Learning Resources Committee of the Faculty Assembly.

The 2025-2026 Golden Apple Awards honorees are:

EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO STUDENTS, STAFF, OR FACULTY BY A STAFF MEMBER

SHAYNA KATZ, INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER, CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

Katz has been a tireless contributor to the quality of education at HPU, working alongside faculty on course development, new technology implementation, and student technical support. She played an instrumental role in the re-accreditation of the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs and the Master of Public Health.

A leader in AI integration at HPU, Katz has piloted AI case-based simulations, developed AI-generated topic overviews using Fliki, and helped faculty build student AI literacy for workforce readiness. She co-led two IRB-approved research studies with nursing faculty and co-authored a manuscript on AI-assisted curriculum design accepted for publication. Her monthly Micro Tech Talks and Blackboard workshops have been a cornerstone of HPU's transition to Blackboard Ultra.

EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY BY A STAFF MEMBER

DAVID BARROWCLOUGH, UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR

Barrowclough brings principled, steady leadership to one of the university's most operationally complex offices. Colleagues describe him as solution-oriented and ethically grounded, someone who practices what his nominators call "compassionate compliance," navigating institutional demands with transparency and care for the people involved.

His influence is often felt without being seen, a quality his nominators say is the hallmark of a great registrar. Faculty, staff, students, and parents alike have benefited from his ability to translate deep institutional knowledge into clear, accessible communication, delivered with warmth and professionalism.

EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO STUDENTS, STAFF, OR FACULTY BY A FACULTY MEMBER

DANIELLE GIROUX, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL WORK

Giroux has been at the forefront of the Social Work program's transition from a long-standing in-person MSW to a fully online degree, a complex undertaking that she has navigated with both skill and a deep attentiveness to the student experience. Her perspective is informed, in part, by her own HPU master of social work degree, which she earned in 2011.

Her online courses are designed to prepare graduates for practice with at-risk populations, trauma survivors, older adults, and youth. She has also built research partnerships with local agencies — including work supporting survivors recovering from sex trafficking — integrating student researchers into those projects to provide experiential learning alongside meaningful community impact.

EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO STUDENTS, STAFF, OR FACULTY BY A FACULTY MEMBER

KAYLA BLACK, DPT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY AND DIRECTOR OF STUDENT AFFAIRS, DOCTOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY PROGRAM

Black is the kind of colleague people turn to not because it is her job, but because it is who she is. Students, faculty, and staff describe her as consistently present and genuinely approachable, someone who listens without judgment, responds with compassion, and shows up for others even outside traditional working hours.

Her nominators say she does not treat service as an obligation but as a natural extension of her character. Whether helping a student work through a challenge, supporting a colleague, or assisting staff, she brings patience and professionalism to every interaction, and has a way of making everyone around her feel valued.

EXCELLENCE IN REFLECTIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY

CHONG HO (ALEX) YU, PH.D., PROFESSOR AND PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF DATA SCIENCE, DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

As HPU works through the implications of AI on education, the workforce, and society, Yu has been an indispensable voice in those conversations. A member of the University's AI Task Force, he has developed or is currently developing two new programs and four courses on generative AI and related ethics at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

In the past year, Yu published four peer-reviewed journal articles on the reflective use of technology, presented three research papers, conducted three workshops, and maintained three weekly blogs. His scholarly output and curricular leadership have made him one of HPU's most consequential contributors to the university's evolving relationship with technology.

EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE LEARNING

SABRINA GOWETTE, OTD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY AND DIRECTOR OF FIELDWORK EDUCATION, DOCTOR OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY PROGRAM

Gowette has transformed the fieldwork experience for occupational therapy students at HPU, procuring more than 100 clinical and community placement sites across the country — urban, rural, and remote — to ensure that students can meet the needs of diverse local communities wherever they are placed.

She built the Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Manual from the ground up, establishing clear policies and procedures for students and sites alike, and created internal documentation around student attestations and professionalism for clinical experiences. True to the aloha spirit, she remains available to students in and outside of traditional working hours throughout their clinical placements.

EXCELLENCE IN MENTORING

KIMBERLY MULLANE, PH.D., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Mullane, who leads a research group at HPU's Downtown Science Lab, invests more than 25 hours a week working directly with undergraduate researchers, reviewing their abstracts, posters, and presentations, and guiding them from classroom theory to real-world scientific inquiry.

The results speak plainly. In the past year, three of her mentees earned academic distinctions; six presented at the Biomedical Research Symposium at the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine; two presented at the National American Chemical Society annual conference in Atlanta; two were accepted into Ph.D. programs; and one won the Student Research Award in the Chemistry Division of the International Forum on Research Excellence, selected from among 300 global finalists. Since joining HPU, Mullane has also secured prestigious NSF and NIH research grants exceeding $350,000.

EXCELLENCE IN SCHOLARSHIP

CARMELLA VIZZA, PH.D., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Vizza has built a record of scholarly achievement in her five years at HPU that is, by any measure, rare at a teaching university. Her research sits at the intersection of ecosystem and microbial ecology, using comparative, experimental, and modeling approaches to examine some of the most consequential questions in environmental science.

In the past year, she and her collaborators published research on the global importance of nitrogen fixation across inland and coastal waters in Science, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. As principal investigator, she also secured a $500,000-plus NSF grant to study the effects of sea-level rise on methane dynamics in coastal wetlands, and a separate $150,000-plus grant from the UH Manoa Sea Grant College Program for an ecosystem-based monitoring program for Kalou loʻi and loko wai. She has published three additional peer-reviewed articles and contributed community-centered research on Genki Balls that earned significant public attention.

EXCELLENCE IN SCHOLARSHIP

PAUL MINTKEN, DPT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY

Mintken has distinguished himself as one of HPU's most prolific scholars, with a career body of work that includes more than 80 authored and co-authored peer-reviewed publications in leading physical therapy journals. His research has been cited more than 3,900 times, a measure of its reach and sustained engagement within the field.

In four years at HPU, Mintken has published 18 articles, with five more accepted for publication and three additional manuscripts in review. He has also taken an active role in building a culture of scholarship at the university, mentoring fellow faculty members and fostering collaboration as a shared practice, contributing not only to his own output but to the professional development of those around him.

DISTINGUISHED TEACHING BY AN ADJUNCT FACULTY MEMBER

JU-HUA WEI, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF MUSIC AND MANDARIN, DEPARTMENT OF ARTS, LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

Wei has taught at HPU for more than 18 years, bringing to every class a combination of carefully prepared lectures, interactive activities, and richly layered multimedia experiences. An ethnomusicologist, performer, and language teacher, she covers a wide range of subjects — music performance, dance, music history, cultural history, Mandarin Chinese, and honors interdisciplinary studies with the same depth and inventiveness.

Students praise her for challenging them to engage with music and dance at levels that might otherwise feel out of reach, while making the process entirely approachable. Her teaching is consistently described as engaging and motivating, grounded in deep expertise and delivered with the kind of encouragement that gives students genuine, tangible, real-world experiences.

DISTINGUISHED UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING BY A FULL-TIME FACULTY MEMBER

JAMES LAWRENCE, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Lawrence teaches foundational courses in Anatomy, Physiology, Neurobiology, General Biology, and Introductory Chemistry, reaching an average of 250 students per semester. He is consistently rated among the highest in student evaluations across measures of knowledge, availability, responsiveness, feedback, fairness, and overall effectiveness.

His classroom philosophy centers on equipping students with lasting skills in information processing, memory, and problem-solving. He developed a Blackboard video series on how the brain works and effective long-term learning techniques, and a companion series titled "Studying, Learning, and Managing Stress and Anxiety" that reflects his commitment to student wellbeing beyond the academic. As faculty advisor for the Neuroscience Club, he organizes annual cadaver lab visits at JABSOM and trips to The Queen's Medical Center, bringing science out of the lecture hall and into the world.

DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE TEACHING BY A FULL-TIME FACULTY MEMBER

SUSAN LINGELBACH, OTD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

Lingelbach teaches seven core courses in the occupational therapy program, including heavily clinical courses in Occupational Therapy for Children and Youth and Neurorehabilitation and Cognition. Her students describe a supportive and rigorous learning environment in which complex material becomes accessible, and confidence is built alongside competence.

What distinguishes Lingelbach most is her leadership in trauma-informed pedagogy. She conducted a comprehensive literature review on trauma-informed teaching practices and thoughtfully adapted the SAMHSA trauma-informed framework for an educational setting, bringing the same scholarly rigor she brings to her clinical courses to the question of how students themselves learn best.