UH, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency sign landmark partnership agreement

from UH News August 19, 2025

The University of Hawaiʻi System and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) have officially entered into a new Education Partnership Agreement aimed at enhancing science and technology education while advancing DPAA’s critical mission of accounting for missing U.S. personnel from past conflicts.

The five-year agreement, signed on August 19, by UH President Wendy Hensel and DPAA Director Kelly K. McKeague, creates a formal framework for collaborative research, educational enrichment and workforce development. Under the agreement, UH students and faculty will gain access to DPAA’s scientific expertise, state-of-the-art facilities, data collections and assignment opportunities, while DPAA will benefit from UH’s innovation initiatives, academic resources, and talented staff and students.

“This partnership exemplifies how state and federal institutions can work together to inspire and nurture the next generation of researchers and public servants,” said Hensel. “Through hands-on experience and direct mentorship from DPAA experts, our students will be uniquely positioned to contribute to a mission rooted in honor, science and service.”

This agreement will also allow DPAA to continue to work with UH on joint efforts to develop new methods and technologies to support DPAA’s personnel recovery operations. Since 2021, DPAA partnered with the UH Mānoa’s Department of Anthropology to develop Cambodia’s archaeological capacity through the Cambodian Completion Initiative, which enables Cambodian archaeologists to potentially lead investigative and recovery-type accounting operations in their home country.

More recently, DPAA also worked with the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine’s Willed Body Program to develop a database of isotopic signatures of Hawaiʻi-based individuals to establish comparisons with continental U.S. American and Asian populations to help in DPAA’s efforts to distinguish Asian American personnel missing from World War II and the Korean War.

“The Daniel K. Inouye Center of Excellence, located at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, is the preeminent forensic science laboratory in the world,” said McKeague. “Through this strategic partnership with UH, DPAA is able to leverage their cutting-edge academic research and technological innovation to advance our humanitarian mission. This collaboration also provides unique educational and professional development opportunities for students and researchers who are passionate about public service and science.”

The UH and DPAA Education Partnership Agreement connects academic talent with real-world challenges, and fosters an environment where academic discovery and national service go hand in hand.

---30---

SAS: University of Hawaii students to aid Pentagon’s war-dead recovery mission | Stars and Stripes

SA: UH signs agreement with military’s POW/MIA agency | Honolulu Star-Advertiser