Grant Assistant I
Chief Information Officer
Vincent Dela Cruz joined the University of Guam in 2022 as chief information officer. He spent nearly 24 years working for the Guam Department of Education, the last 13.5 years as the data processing manager. He has also been an adjunct instructor at Guam Community College.
Research Associate I
Associate Director
Else Demeulenaere is an ecologist and an avid advocate for sustainable living. Else was the co-founder of a community based gardening project which attracted neighbors and friends to learn about organic gardening, Guam’s natural resources, sustainable living by storytelling, and our ecological surroundings. While working for an NGO for nature conservation, Else studied policy-making as a tool to protect the environment. At the University of Guam, Else took part in inventorying Guam’s forests and led a pilot terrestrial monitoring project for the Micronesia Challenge. Most recently, she coordinated the Guam Plant Extinction Prevention Program (GPEPP). In her new position as Associate Director, Else hopes to contribute to the ongoing growth and diversification of the Center for Island Sustainability.
Research Associate II
Associate Professor of Social Work
Tressa P. Diaz, received her MSW at Hunter College School of Social Work at the City University of New York and is currently a PhD candidate at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work (MBTSSW) at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa.
Tressa is a doctoral scholar under the University of Guam-University of Hawai`i Cancer Center U54 Partnership. Her research focus is on the social determinants of cancer disparities and access to quality healthcare among Chamoru and other Micronesian communities in the Pacific.
She is dedicated to community-centered research, cancer survivorship, and the preservation of indigenous resources. Her doctoral research is on access to care and barriers to colorectal cancer screening among Chamoru on Guam.
Her hobbies include: reading, tennis, and playing guitar.
Administrative Aide
Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management
Dr. Joann Diego joined the School of Business & Public Administration in 2021 as full-time faculty in human resource management. She has been an adjunct faculty for SBPA and a program coordinator with the School of Education since 2010 and 2007, respectively.
Human resource management has always been in Joann’s heart. She was the founding vice president for the award-winning UOG Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Student Chapter during her undergraduate years 25 years ago, and she is now the adviser for the chapter.
Associate Director/Project Administrator
Jose Edgardo L. Aban is a seasoned research and project manager and an advocate of satellite remote sensing education. He served for almost two decades at the Department of Science and Technology of the Philippines and has taught as a senior lecturer in the Department of Geography, Development, and Environmental Studies at the Universiti of Brunei Darussalam, where he was instrumental in the establishment of an image processing laboratory.
Prior to joining UOG, Aban served as a technical consultant at the Asian Development Bank, as project manager of the GIS-based project dubbed “Communication and Information Systems for the Control of Avian Influenza” of the ASEAN Foundation, and as a consultant of a mapping unit of an agricultural company in Indonesia.
Recreation Supervisor