The Importance of Disaggregated Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Race/Ethnicity Data

I was born and raised in Mililani, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. My life’s mission has been to return home to the islands to provide high quality cancer care to the communities that raised me.

I completed my PhD at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and MD at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. I am currently a resident physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford where I receive training in how to treat a variety of cancers. My research interests include Pacific Islander health disparities, “AAPI” health data disaggregation, water sustainability and climate resilient healthcare, access to cancer care disparities, and the impact of cancer healthcare costs have on survival outcomes.

I was awarded the Inaugural 2023 ASCO Dr. Judith and Alan Kaur Endowed Young Investigator Award. My work has been published in The Lancet, JAMA, JNCI, and JCO Oncology Practice. I have been invited to speak on NHPI health at institutions including Harvard, MDACC Grand Rounds, UCLA, NIH/NCI, and the FDA. I serve as reviewer for a number of oncology journals including JCO, JNCI, JCO Oncology Practice, Cancers, IJROBP, and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, among others. I was selected as a 2022-2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Journals Editorial Fellow and a 2023-2024 Stanford Cancer Institute Fellow.

I run a lab of more than 10 talented NHPI and NHPI-ally students across the nation who focus on elucidating NHPI health disparities that have been masked for decades.