Forensic Sciences

Peer-Reviewed Paper

February 12, 2024

International journal accepts paper from Professor David Carter and colleagues

David Carter, Ph.D., literally wrote the book on forensic microbiology so, it was only natural that he was invited to co-author a published paper that will appear in Nature Microbiology. Completely comfortable discussing an issue that is often squeamish for many, the Forensic Sciences Program director casually speaks of cadavers and PMI (Post Mortem Interval) as if he’s talking about the weather.

“There’s definitely increasing interest in PMI (or the time that has elapsed since an individual’s death),” Carter says. “It’s critical information that could be key to solving a crime—or providing an alibi—in absence of any witnesses … or insects.”

Dr. David Carter holding his AAFS Pathology/Biology Section Award for Achievement in the Forensic Life Sciences.

The microbiomes associated with decomposing human cadavers are universal regardless of location or environmental conditions, the paper published in Nature Microbiology suggests. The findings show a conserved and predictable sequence of microbial interactions that break down organic matter, which could have implications for forensic science.

Decomposition is essentially nature’s recycling system. It is a fundamental process that recycles dead biological material to fuel biological processes, such as plant productivity and soil respiration. Microbial fungi and bacteria are predominantly responsible for decomposition, and although this process is well studied, research has focused predominantly on the breakdown of dead plant biomass. In contrast to plants, animal carcasses, including those of humans, are enriched in readily decomposable proteins and lipids, but their impact on biogeochemistry and community ecology are poorly understood.

In their research, Carter and his colleagues tracked the decomposition process in 36 human cadavers, which had been willed to science. The bodies were placed in three locations with either a temperate or semi-arid climate, with three cadavers placed at each location for each of the four seasons, and the researchers took samples of the cadavers’ skin and surrounding soil throughout the first 21 days postmortem. Their study found that decomposing human cadavers had a universal consortium of microbes, regardless of the location, climate or season, that are rare in non-decomposition environments and appear unique to the terrestrial breakdown of flesh.

“Jessica Metcalf of Colorado State and Rob Knight of UC San Diego and I initiated this research in 2011,” Cater says. “Our findings are a sign of success, but we’re still not quite there.”

With metagenome-assumed genomes and metabolomic profiling of soils adjacent to cadavers, Carter and his co-authors reconstructed a network of interaction that revealed how fungi and bacteria share resources as they metabolize decomposition products. Carter and his colleagues suggest that insects may serve as vectors that disperse these microbes from one decomposing animal to another.

According to Carter, using data on the microbial timeline of cadaver decomposition, combined with a machine learning model, they were also able to predict the time since death, which could have potential future applications for forensic science.

“We now have techniques that we didn’t have 20 years ago,” Carter asserts. “It’s also a lot easier for new science and other developments to get in the hands of lawyers and investigators, which makes for a stronger working relationship with criminologists to achieve criminal justice.”

Student Athlete

November 28, 2023

Haley Hayakawa ’24 has all the bases covered

Haley Hayakawa gets sworn in at the Kapolei field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. — Accepted into the FBI’s “Honors Internship Program,”Haley Hayakawa gets sworn in at the Kapolei field office.

Her fellow classmates think she’s playing Candy Crush on her laptop. But in actuality, Haley Hayakawa ’24 is eyeing her Google calendar, which is scattered with different colors, each representing a lab, class or work hours that she has committed to during the week.

When the California native is not in a class or lab, she’s out in left field, shagging flies as a member of the Women’s Softball team. And during the summer, Hayakawa was working 40 hours a week at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s field office in Kapolei, where she participated in the “Honors Internship Program,” which only accepts a sliver two percent of all its applications.

“It was my first full-time job,” said the 22-year-old Forensic Science major. “It has been the best experience I’ve ever had; everybody there wants to be there, and they all want to help you.”

An avid softball player since the eighth grade, Hayakawa committed to Chaminade University when she was a junior in high school, the earliest a student athlete can officially commit to a Division I or Division II college.

“I was recruited by Division I and Division II schools, but some wouldn’t allow their recruits to participate in sports if they plan to major in a hard science because of all the required labs,” Hayakawa said. “Chaminade does, and it’s one of the reasons I chose to come here.”

She was also familiar with Chaminade’s Forensics Science program, which requires its students to complete a rigorous, 135-hour internship with such offices as the Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner, police departments in Hawaii and Guam or the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command’s Central Identification Laboratory.

“During my junior year, I interned with the Medical Examiner Department, which gets involved with deaths as a result of violence, substance abuse, trauma, accidents or suicide, among other suspicious causes of death,” Hayakawa explained. “After reading some of the suicide notes, I was thankful to be stressed out because those notes helped put things in perspective for me.”

An ambitious go-getter from an early age, Hayakawa is the only child and holds high expectations from herself—and not her parents, Greg and Myra Hayakawa. In fact, her father often tells her “to be open to changes, and not everything happens as planned.”

“In my freshman year, all I could eye was being awarded summa cum laude, which requires a 3.96 GPA,” Hayakawa notes. “I’ve only had one B and that was in Organic Biochemistry, which lowered my 4.0 GPA to 3.96.”

Ironically, one of her two American Chemical Society awards was being recognized as the Most Outstanding Student in Organic Biochemistry—despite her B—and Most Outstanding Student in Forensic Chemistry, nominated by David Carter, Ph.D., Forensic Sciences director and professor.

Haley Hayakawa gets ready to take off from second base.

“She also has minors in Biochemistry and Chemistry,” Carter says. “She is a stellar athlete on the softball team and she also works as one of our Forensic Sciences Laboratory Assistants.”

Hayakawa’s collegiate experience has certainly had its challenges. Her freshman year was during the height of COVID, which meant Hale Lokelani Residence Hall was in lockdown mode, limiting her interaction with fellow students except for her roommate Naomi Noguchi from Kauai. It was also her first time living away from home, and she couldn’t leave campus for three weeks. Meanwhile, the softball team couldn’t take to the gym and was forced to conduct its workouts via Zoom videos.

“My classes were from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, which was crazy,” Hayakawa recalls. “I was so overwhelmed, and when I went home for the winter break, my parents asked if I was OK because I had lost 30 pounds.”

When she returned to campus in the spring, Hayakawa now had to juggle between her softball season and her studies, maintaining a batting average of .377—earning her the team’s batting champion— and a perfect 4.0 GPA.

“It’s easy to manage time, when your time is managed for you,” Hayakawa quips. “I’m all in … all the time.”

As she completes her final year as a Silversword, Hayakawa fondly reflects back on her time on Kalaepohaku campus, on the softball field, in the labs and with her friends. She already has future plans to attend graduate school, after having turned down a job offer with the FBI field office in Kapolei.

“I’ve always wanted to help the community through criminal justice,” says Hayakawa, who will graduate as summa cum laude, thus achieving her ultimate freshman goal. “I made the right decision to come to Chaminade, not only because of its small class sizes, but because I got to form relationships with my professors and formed new friendships.”

Out on a Limb

September 19, 2023

Elena Chen wants to help people walk again

Elena Chen and a fellow graduate student help an amputee with his prosthetic leg.

She vividly remembers the moment when she knew that she wanted to pursue her higher education in prosthetics. While a sophomore volunteer at Shriners Children’s Hawaii, Elena Chen ’21 witnessed something less than a miracle, as she describes it.

“I saw a young kid get a second chance to run again,” Chen recalls. “After putting on a leg prosthetic, he got up and I’ll never forget the smile on his face; it was awesome to see.”

Now attending the International Institute of Orthotics and Prosthetics in Tampa, Fla., Chen is working towards her master’s degree in Orthotics and Prosthetics (O&P), a specialized health care profession that combines technical and clinical skills to care for patients with neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders and/or patients who have a partial or total absence of a limb.

“I graduated with my bachelor’s in Forensic Science, which I really wanted a career in,” Chen says. “But when I learned about the field of prosthetics and orthotics, it personally connected with me because I know someone whose leg was amputated because of cancer.”

Prostheses (artificial legs and hands) and orthoses (braces and splints) enable people with physical impairments or functional limitations to live healthy, productive, independent and dignified lives, and to participate in education, the labor market and social life. The use of prostheses or orthoses can reduce the need for formal health care, support services, long-term care and caregivers.

“Prostheses and orthoses give people a second chance to perform activities that they once loved, like running, for instance,” Chen says. “When you lose your leg, you can quickly take a downward spiral into deep depression, which causes a persistent feeling of sadness and disinterest.”

Without access to prostheses or orthoses, people who need them are often excluded, isolated and locked into poverty, which increases the burden of morbidity and disability. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that Member States—to which the U.S. belongs—are responsible for taking effective measures to ensure personal mobility for the greatest possible independence of people with disabilities.

Elena Chen laminated a prosthetic socket during one of her classes.

They also have a corresponding responsibility to promote and ensure the availability of and access to mobility aids, devices and assistive technologies, including prostheses and orthoses.

As of June 2023, the CRPD has been ratified by 164 signatories and 187 parties, 186 states and the European Union. Members are thus obliged to ensure access to affordable, high-quality assistive products, including prostheses and orthoses. However, the World Health Organization estimates that, today, only 1 in 10 people in need has access to assistive products, including prostheses and orthoses.

Chen wants to change this.

From 2019 to 2020, Chen shadowed her mentor, Cameron Lehrer, an American Board Certified and Licensed Prosthetist and Orthotist, and owner of Prosthetics & Orthotic Associates of Hawaii, Inc, which prides itself in its creative and innovative approach to patient-centered care.

“I was a student apprentice responsible for taking casts and measurements,” Chen explains. “I was making prosthetic sockets, and really building my skills.”

Chen, though, just doesn’t want to learn about prosthetics and orthotics, she also wants to be able to translate the technical medical terms in Mandarin. This month, she received her X2 student visa and started her clinical rotations in Chongqing, China.

“I’m so excited,” said Chen, after learning about the approval of her visa. “Not only will I gain more experience in making prosthetic limbs, but I’ll also learn more Mandarin. Eventually, I want to be able to utilize my Chinese language skills in Hawaii to help people with their language barrier in a hospital setting, which is a scary experience.”

Due to return to Hawaii in December to visit her parents, mom Shanly Wu and dad Tommy Chen, the aspiring 24-year-old prosthetist and orthoptist is grateful for the experiential opportunities that Chaminade exposed her to while an undergraduate student, and taught her to be open to new ideas and to want to learn everything she can.

“Outside of classes, I did volunteer work and joined various student clubs,” Chen says. “I also completed the one-year Hogan Entrepreneurial Program, and I was the only one who went to Shanghai, China to study abroad. What I appreciate most is that Chaminade taught me the importance of community service and giving back, which is what I want to do when I get my board-certified license in ’24 or ’25.”

NCIS Special Agents in Hawaii

July 19, 2023

Chaminade Alumni Represent True NCIS Agents

They don’t go around pointing their guns at people. They don’t detonate bombs. And they certainly don’t solve major crimes in an hour. But, what five Chaminade alumni do help to accomplish is to keep Hawaii safe.

As special agents for the Hawaii Field Office of NCIS headquartered at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Chris Meana ’12, Pia Teves ’85, Tamara Kenessey ’16, Olivia DeQuiroz ’12 and Kay Een ’02 are tasked with monitoring crime, conducting polygraph tests, supporting criminal investigations, and providing analytical support and technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM).

They’re important jobs for sure. And for Meana, it has been a “life calling.”

Chris Meana, right, and Kay Een promote NCIS at a recruitment affair.

“When I attended Chaminade, I was really into my religious classes, and I thought that was my calling,” says Meana, an Intelligence Specialist with NCIS since 2015 who also acts as NCIS Honors Student Internship Coordinator, and is a member of Member of the Special Agent in Charge Advisory Group. “But then I served with the Hawaii National Guard and I refined my calling, wanting to make an impact in my hometown.”

For DeQuiroz, it was not so much a calling but a necessity that led her to the NCIS Hawaii Field Office. “I needed to pay for college so I applied for an administrative position,” says the Polygraph Examiner. “Then a job came up and I was encouraged to apply, and I passed a series of tests during the hiring process.”

Today, DeQuiroz provides counterintelligence, monitoring spies, terrorists and any matter that pertains to our national security across all branches of the military. She’s also involved with “Operation Keiki Shield,” which is part of the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that is comprised of a national network of 61 coordinated task forces, representing more than 5,400 federal, state and local law enforcement.

“Internet crimes are always challenging,” DeQuiroz says. “But we’ve managed to arrest more than 100 child predators in our Task Force in Hawaii.”

Olivia DeQuiroz administers a mock polygraph test.

With the nation’s strategic focus shifting towards the Indo-Pacific region, the NCIS Hawaii Field Office’s multi-faceted capabilities are even more in demand. Stretching from the Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean, the area is home to more than half of the world’s people, nearly two-thirds of the world’s economy and seven of the world’s largest militaries. And in the years ahead, as the region drives as much as two-thirds of global economic growth, its influence will only grow—as will its importance to the United States.

A former electrician with his family’s business, Teves started as a Technical Investigative Specialist (TIS) Agent in 1987 and became a Technical Enforcement Officer in 2014. He is now the sole provider of technical support for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, as well as providing technical security for the entire Pacific Command.

“Before there was internet, I was looking at an actual bulletin board while I was on campus, and I came across this poster that read: Naval Investigative Service (NIS), Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Special Agent position. Overseas travel, Worldwide locations,” recalls Teves, whose official NCIS title is currently Technical Surveillance Specialist. “I had no idea what it was, but it sounded sexy so I applied. About nine months later, I was hired as an Agent.”

Pia Teves, wearing tank top, were on temporary duty travel to provide protective service for Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command during his official visit to Manila, Philippines in 2004. — Pia Teves, wearing tank top, and his colleagues were on temporary duty travel to provide protective service for Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, during his official visit to Manila, Philippines in 2004.

Often misperceived as a branch of the military, NCIS is not. It is, however, the federal law enforcement arm of the Department of the Navy. Comprised primarily of civilian 1811 special agents and a small cadre of active duty Marine Corps active duty investigators, NCIS has more than 14 field offices and over 190 locations. Its special agents are stationed worldwide in support of military operations.

With historical roots tied to the Office of Naval Intelligence, the modern NCIS was formally established in 1966 as the Naval Investigative Service. It was re-organized and assigned a civilian director in 1992, along with a name change to the now Naval Criminal Investigative Service. With this re-branding, NCIS also became a primarily civilian agency as an insulation against military command influence.

“We’re an agency of around only 2,500 members, which is relatively small compared to the major players, like the DEA, ATF and FBI,” Meana points out. “But our capabilities are well respected, and we are well known for our role in counterintelligence, protective service and force protection operations.”

Solving crimes and catching the bad guys, though, aren’t the only issues that the NCIS Hawai‘i Field Office faces. Integrating itself into the local community is vital, as well, which is why the team can be seen throughout the year at a variety of functions. Some outreach efforts focus on awareness and education, spanning across such topics as internet safety and sexual assault prevention to identity theft and cybercrime.

Kay Een flashes a shaka while in Baghdad, Iraq circa 2005.

A Special Agent since 2020, Kenessey deals with death investigations, child enticement, fraud, arson and all federal-level investigations that involve criminal and security matters with the Navy.

Upon learning that her mentor, Associate Professor Dr. Joe Allen, passed away in December 2021, Kenessey was saddened by the news. “Technically I wouldn’t be here if Dr. Allen hadn’t written a letter, and told me to check out NCIS,” Kenessey says. “I think Chaminade lost a valuable professor and mentor. As I said, he was an integral part of where I am today both academically and professionally.”

Kay Een, meanwhile, praises Chaminade for its welcoming atmosphere and for the experiential learning that helped her land a job with NCIS. As NCIS’ Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Een supports NCIS’ progression in the DEI arena by supporting enterprise initiatives to implement the best business practices, encouraging collaboration, and delivering proven solutions to nurture a ready and resilient, globally-engaged workforce. She was introduced to the NCIS Honors Internship Program while a Silversword.

“Much like my time at Chaminade, I believe there is great value being surrounded by people with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives,” says Een, who is now in her 20^th year with NCIS. “Being in a place that fosters diversity through inclusion is key to growing an innovative and agile workforce.”

As far as the authenticity of CBS’ popular NCIS franchise, Meana, Teves, DeQuiroz, Kenessey and Een agree that the drama doesn’t always get it right. “We have a close relationship with the show, and we’ve worked with them closely,” Meana says. “They try to stay close to reality, but they do add their own fictional twist.”

Ongoing Investigation

March 22, 2023

Chaminade director of forensic sciences and a hui of scientists research PMI

It may sound morbid, but David Carter, Ph.D., wants to figure out how long people have been dead. And he may just be able to do so, thanks to a $830,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). In collaboration with colleagues from Colorado Mesa University, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Northern Michigan University, Western Carolina University, Texas State University San Marcos and University of Québec at Trois-Rivières, the hui of forensic scientists is studying microbial communities with hopes of discovering their own forensics Holy Grail.

“What’s the first question that a loved one asks after a death, ‘When did he or she die?’” Carter asks rhetorically. “There’s definitely increasing interest in PMI (Post-Mortem Interval or the time that has elapsed since an individual’s death). It’s critical information that could be key to solving a crime—or providing an alibi—in absence of any witnesses … or insects.”

The word “forensic” comes from the Latin word “forensis” that means “of or before the forum.” According to the Department of Justice, forensic science is a critical element of the criminal justice system. Forensic scientists examine and analyze evidence from crime scenes and elsewhere to develop objective findings that can assist in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of crime or absolve an innocent person from suspicion.

David Carter holds his American Academy of Forensic Sciences Pathology/Biology Section Award for Achievement in the Forensic Life Sciences.

And that’s the point of the NIJ grant, which seeks “to create and validate a microbial-based model to predict PMI across locations in the U.S.” Carter’s and his colleagues’ proposed applied research seeks to improve forensic science for criminal justice purposes by increasing knowledge about a potential new type of physical evidence (microbes), and focuses on developing a tool in which the microbiome present on skin or in nearby soils is used as physical evidence to estimate PMI.

“Jessica Metcalf of Colorado State and Rob Knight of UC San Diego and I initiated this research in 2011,” Carter explains. “So, this recent grant is part of a series of funding that has allowed us to continue our research. It’s a sign of success, but we’re still not quite there.”

In their previous research, investigators utilized skin and soil samples associated with 36 human cadavers collected daily for 21 days from three forensic facilities, which predicts PMI within approximately +/- 3 days over the first 21 days postmortem. As a result, this new research provides useful accuracy for crime scene investigations. In the current proposed research, the first goal is to expand the 36-body PMI microbiome database by collecting similar sample types from an additional 18 human cadavers from two additional facilities, which are in a climate type not yet represented in the PMI database. This additional collection will bring Köppen-Geiger classified climate types (tropical, arid, temperate, continental and polar) in the database to include three of the major U.S. climate types.

“I’ll be traveling to Tennessee in February to lead a training workshop,” Carter says. “I’ll teach participants the proper techniques in collecting samples, which will then be sequenced at a forensic lab for further examination.”

An anthropologist major as an undergraduate at the University of Idaho, Carter didn’t learn about forensics until his senior year. But when he did, the Indiana Jones in him decided to attend Bournemouth University in England to pursue his M.Sc. in Forensic Archaeology, eventually earning a doctorate from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

“I’ve always been curious about archeology, history and skeletons,” says Carter, whose interest in the “unknown” started in a movie theatre while watching “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” “I think of death and decomposition all the time.

“I even discuss it at home with my wife, Charlotte—who’s a Medicolegal Investigator with the City & County of Honolulu’s Department of the Medical Examiner,” Carter continues. “I live in the world of the fringe, but people tell me I look so normal.”

Alumna’s Forensic Science Passion Takes Her to NCIS

July 13, 2022

When Kay Een ’02 was a kid, she called many places home.

Her dad was in the military and stationed around the world, from Okinawa to Greece to Hawaii.

And with each assignment, the family would pack up, pick up and move someplace new. Een got accustomed to change, but she also found something that always stayed the same: her love of Patricia Cornwell novels. The crime author’s delicious tales of murder and mystery fascinated her.

And eventually, they would help drive her to a successful career in forensic sciences.

But first, Een said, she had some “growing up to do.”

Finding Her Passion

After graduating from high school, Een wasn’t quite ready to jump into college so she decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the military. She chose the Navy and was trained as an air traffic controller. It was fulfilling, fast-paced work, but Een was looking for new ways to grow.

So when she was stationed in Hawaii, she decided to enroll at Chaminade University.

She initially got her associate’s degree. And then after leaving active service, she returned to Chaminade to continue her education and complete her bachelor’s degree. She majored in Forensic Sciences, rekindling her desire to immerse herself in crime scene investigation and evidence analysis.

At Chaminade, she also found a place where she could thrive as a nontraditional student.

“I loved the connections I made with professors. There was a camaraderie I was able to develop with them,” she said. “I also really enjoyed the fact that a lot of the younger students really looked up to us older students from a life experience perspective. We could offer our shared experiences.”

But what really set Chaminade apart, Een said, was its focus on hands-on learning.

She loved every minute of mock crime scene investigations and staged witness interviews, and couldn’t get enough of the time she spent in forensic sciences labs, either. “You really got to see the work through the eyes of police officers,” she said. “It was really fascinating—and I was hooked.”

That experiential learning continued with an internship that had Een over the moon.

A Career at NCIS

She got the chance to work with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for two semesters, and suddenly found her dream job. “They had me doing real work. We were going to crime scenes, collecting evidence, I went to autopsies,” Een said. “I got to know that this was really for me.”

Een loved the work so much that she applied to NCIS after graduation in 2002. But about that same time, as the U.S. bolstered military actions in the Middle East, Een was activated from the Navy Reserves and deployed to Qatar. She was there for about six months as a Navy air crew member.

After she returned to Hawaii, she got the call she had been waiting for: NCIS wanted to interview her.

She was hired in short order for the agency, and before she had little more than a moment to take a breath, she was assigned to general crimes and conducting investigations. “It was a great first tour,” she said. “I really got to sink my teeth into understanding what the agency and my role was all about.”

Een’s next assignment with NCIS was in Okinawa, a place where she’d lived as a kid.

She is also half-Japanese, and has family on her mother’s side in mainland Japan.

Een was assigned to the family and sexual violence unit and spent three years in Okinawa.

While there, she met her future husband, a Marine. They now have two children together—10-year-old Kenji and 7-year-old Cora. And from Okinawa, the couple was able to co-locate their careers to new locales. They’ve moved five times so far, including to Washington, D.C. and back to Okinawa.

Along the way, Een also received several promotions.

Inclusion and Diversity in NCIS

“That was the most amazing thing about NCIS. I didn’t have to choose between being a mom and promoting or progressing in the agency. At the end of the day, I was presented with the right opportunities and was able to progress my military career. That’s so important,” she said.

Een now serves as the chief diversity and inclusion officer for NCIS, a role that’s kept her passionate about her career and agency. She said her focus is on making NCIS the strongest it can be and attracting and retaining the best talent. “If you don’t have equity and you don’t have inclusion, you don’t have diversity,” she said. “We need to use this canvas of people we have to the best of their abilities.”

As she marks 18 years with NCIS, Een says it hasn’t all been roses.

About 10 years into her career with the agency, with her husband deployed, Een said she almost left when she felt as if she was being asked to choose between being a mom and being an agent. But a candid conversation with her superiors allowed her to stick with it—and she’s grateful she did.

Een added she doesn’t want that experience to happen to others.

“I was fortunate that the agency picked me up and changed my trajectory,” she said. “But I really think that shouldn’t happen to anybody else. It shouldn’t be luck or chance to determine whether or not I stayed with this agency. What if I hadn’t had that conversation? Where would I be today?”

And it’s that experience that got her interested in equity in the first place.

Een started serving as a member of the NCIS director’s Committee for Diversity and Inclusion in 2014. And when her current role opened up, she immediately put her name in the hat. “This is what I want to do because I genuinely believe that our organization is wonderful and we do really good things,” she said. “Our director believes in cultural diversity and he believes in people. I want to support that.”

And if you’re wondering if Een is a fan of the “NCIS” TV series, too, the answer is yes.

The last time she was in the islands, she got to visit the “NCIS: Hawaii” set and “totally fangirled.”

She’s also excited she might have more opportunities to swing by. Sixteen years after leaving, Een will be moving back to Hawaii with her family and continuing in her current role with NCIS remotely. “It’s something that we’ve always said, that Hawaii was where we’d like to go some day,” Een said. “It’s always been a touchtone and now it’s happening. We’re thrilled.”