Dylan Pilger is a 2024 Peter J. Rappa Fellow at the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program. As a Rappa Fellow, Dylan is conducting a systematic review of literature and reports to outline areas of particular concern for contaminant risk assessment and potential risk mitigation for coastal communities in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) with a focus on legacy contaminants associated with military activity. Under the mentorship of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant extension agent Dr. Eileen Nalley, Dylan’s project will contribute to a broader assessment of infrastructure, ongoing activities, or land use in the USAPI that may present a risk for both acute disaster-related and long-term contamination risk to coastal communities.

Dylan received his Master of Public Health with a specialization in Native Hawaiian and Indigenous health at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His studies were focused on health equity and environmental justice for Indigenous communities. His capstone project titled “Environmental Health Impacts of the U.S. Military on Indigenous Peoples: A Scoping Review,” explored the scientific literature focused on the unique health impacts faced by Indigenous communities as a result of U.S. military activity and its impact on Indigenous lands and waters.

After completion of the Rappa Fellowship, Dylan will travel to Okinawa to participate in the Okinawan Emigrants’ Descendent and Asian Scholarship Program. After this program concludes, he intends to return to Hawaiʻi and hopes to enter the PhD program in public health, specializing in community-based and translational research at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As a PhD student he intends to conduct research on environmental health issues impacting Indigenous communities in Hawaiʻi and Okinawa.