Pictured: Dr. Young is second from left among the 2016 Distinguished Alumni awardees. At far right is Ken Hayashida, President of the UH Alumni Association.
A alumna of the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department (formerly Speech Pathology) at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) is among the University of Hawaiʻi graduates recognized this year as “Distinguished Alumni.”
Jacqueline “Jackie” Young, PhD, (BS ’69 Speech Pathology, UH Mānoa) is a former state legislator and longtime Chief Staff Officer for the American Cancer Society Hawai‘i Pacific, Inc. (now retired). During a video shown at the awards ceremony in Waikīkī last week, Dr. Young said among those cancer leaders who inspire her currently are Jerris Hedges, MD, Dean of JABSOM and Interim Director of the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center.
Those who know Dr. Young recalled that in addition to her passionate work on behalf of cancer victims, Young led efforts to establish a domestic violence shelter on Windward Oʻahu. They also noted that she was a “non-traditional student” before the term was invented. She had to leave school during her junior year, after marrying a Maui man who was transferred to the U.S. mainland for his job with the U.S. military, eventually returning to the UH to graduate in 1969.
Learn more about Dr. Young in this video by the University of Hawaiʻi Alumni Association.
Other honorees for 2016 are Conrad Nonaka (AS ’70 Kapi‘olani CC, BEd ’78 Mānoa) – Director, Culinary Institute of the Pacific; Ernest Takafuji, MD, MPH (BA ’66 Mānoa) – Director, Office of Biodefense Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (retired); Eric Yeaman (BBA ’89 Mānoa) – President and Chief Operating Officer, First Hawaiian Bank; and Larry Price, EdD (BS ’67, MEd ’71 Mānoa), Former On-Air Personality, KSSK Radio, recipient of the 2016 University of Hawai‘i Founders Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
About the awards
The University of Hawai‘i Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize outstanding alumni who have used their education to excel professionally, provide inspirational leadership to others, and provide service for the benefit of UH and the community.
The annual event recognizing the alumni, held this year on May 31, raises essential funding for the UH Alumni Association (UHAA), a not-for-profit organization that awards student scholarships, connects alumni through its events, supports UHAA chapters and UH campuses, and facilitates communication between UH and its alumni.
Other Distinguished Alumni medal winners
JABSOM is proud that other of its alumni or extended ʻohana have been honored with Distinguished Alumni medals by the UHAA. Among them are Gov. John A. Burns, whose vision for Hawaiʻi was key to the schoolʻs founding; Dr. Satoru Izutsu, Vice Dean Emeritus; Dr. Patricia Blanchette, Founding Geriatric Medicine Chair and JABSOM Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Dr. Chiyome Fukino, former Hawaiʻi State Director of Health; Dr. Kūhio Asam, executive director of the King William Charles Lunalilo Trust and Home; Dr. Virginia Hinshaw, Emeritus UH Mānoa Chancellor and JABSOM Professor; Dr. Gary Okamoto, Associate Clinical Professor; longtime Hawai`i journalist and current JABSOM Communications Director Tina Shelton and Emme Tomimbang, a veteran Hawaiʻi TV personality and businesswoman who is the spouse of the Honorable James S. Burns (Retired), son of former Governor Burns.