Cherie Kauahi was raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. She joined Hawaiʻi Sea Grant in October 2020 and serves as Hawaiʻi Sea Grant’s Aquaculture Extension Agent, working with communities in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands through an innovative extension program on aquaculture. Co-located with the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center (PACRC) at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo (UHH), Cherie has statewide extension duties and responsibilities, including establishing an extension program in aquaculture, developing relationships with the aquaculture industry, identifying aquaculture stakeholder needs, informing aquaculture research activities, disseminating science-based information through traditional extension methods to inform aquaculture stakeholder decision-making, and instruction at UHH. She has been involved with the Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative since 2020.