KCWA Executive Director Accepted into Yale School of the Environment's Tropical Forest Landscapes Program
KULA, MAUI — The Kula Community Watershed Alliance (KCWA) is proud to announce that Executive Director Sara Tekula has been accepted into the prestigious Tropical Forest Landscapes: Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainable Use certificate program at the Yale University School of the Environment. Following a competitive selection process, Tekula was accepted into the 10-month program alongside a limited international cohort of environmental professionals, researchers, and practitioners committed to tropical forest conservation, restoration, and sustainable land management.
Photo of Sara taken by Cody Lang for Hawaiʻi Community Foundation
Offered by the Yale University School of the Environment in partnership with Yale's Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI), the Tropical Forest Landscapes (TFL) certificate program is designed for postgraduate learners and professionals working to conserve, restore, and sustainably manage tropical landscapes. The program emphasizes applying scientific knowledge alongside practical, community-based approaches to conservation and restoration.
Delivered primarily through online learning, the program enables participants to remain embedded in their home communities while engaging in coursework alongside an international cohort. Participants also have the opportunity to join an optional weeklong field immersion in a tropical landscape and develop an applied landscape project focused on a real-world conservation challenge.
Tekula will complete the program while continuing to serve as Executive Director of KCWA, ensuring that the learning remains directly connected to the organization's ongoing work supporting landowners and neighbors as they restore Kula's post-wildfire landscape together.
As part of the program, Tekula plans to develop her applied landscape project around KCWA's Kula Fire Restoration Project, using the Alliance's community-led approach to post-wildfire restoration as a case study for advancing watershed recovery and long-term landscape resilience in tropical environments. The project will create opportunities to share lessons emerging from Kula with an international network of restoration practitioners while bringing new ideas, lasting relationships, and practical approaches back to Maui.
"One of the greatest gifts of this opportunity is that I don't have to leave Kula to pursue it," said Tekula. "I'll continue serving in my role at KCWA while completing the program online, and I look forward to the opportunity to participate in field immersion, as well. I'm looking forward to learning from communities restoring landscapes that face many of the same challenges we do—from wildfire and invasive species to watershed degradation and climate change. I hope to bring home new solutions, new ideas, lasting relationships, and practical tools to strengthen our work here, while sharing what our community in Kula has been learning along the way."
Since forming in the aftermath of the August 2023 Maui wildfires, KCWA has grown into a community-led watershed restoration organization working alongside fire-affected landowners to stabilize burned landscapes, reduce future wildfire risk, restore native ecosystems, and strengthen long-term stewardship across Kula.
The Yale program aligns closely with KCWA's Theory of Change, which recognizes that lasting wildfire resilience and watershed recovery are built through community stewardship, adaptive learning, and long-term care for the landscapes we share. Beyond restoration science, the program explores the ecological, social, and economic dimensions of tropical landscape restoration, reflecting the interdisciplinary approach KCWA has embraced since its founding.
"This recognition reflects the extraordinary work our community has accomplished together," Tekula added. "Everything KCWA has achieved has been built by neighbors, volunteers, landowners, partners, funders, and supporters working side by side. I'm honored to carry Kula's story into this global learning community, but I do so as just one representative of a remarkable community of people who have chosen to become stewards together. I look forward to bringing home new ideas that will strengthen the work we're doing together for Kula's future."
Participation in the Yale School of the Environment program reflects KCWA's commitment to continuous learning, adaptive stewardship, and contributing Hawaiʻi's unique experiences to the broader field of tropical landscape restoration. As communities around the world navigate increasingly complex environmental challenges, KCWA believes that lasting resilience is built when communities learn from one another while caring for the places they call home.
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About Kula Community Watershed Alliance
The Kula Community Watershed Alliance is a community-led nonprofit formed in the aftermath of the August 2023 Maui wildfires to help landowners restore fire-affected lands together. Working across private properties and shared landscapes, KCWA brings neighbors together to stabilize burned lands, reduce wildfire risk, restore native ecosystems, and improve long-term watershed health through collaborative stewardship. To learn more about the Kula Fire Restoration Project, .