Pictured: James Fleming, Dr. Jason Fleming and Dr. Parsa at the White Coat Ceremony.
The Friends of the Medical School, a non-profit organization which supports the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), recognized three individuals with the Honorable James S. Burns Award at the July 20th White Coat Ceremony for the incoming MD Class of 2022.
The award, in its second year, recalls the great service and dedication toward the medical school displayed by former Chief State Court of Appeals Judge James S. Burns, who died in 2017. “Jim” was a steadfast supporter of the school, which bears the name of his father, the former Governor of Hawaiʻi from 1962-1974, the late John A. Burns.
This year those honored for outstanding service to the medical school included Dr. S. Kalani Brady, physician, associate professor and Director of Continuing Medical Education and Faculty Development Program, and Dr. F. Don Parsa, Chief of Plastic Surgery at The Queen’s Medical Center and in the JABSOM Department of Surgery. Below are the words of Jason Fleming, MD, who announced the awards at the White Coat Ceremony, as he was joined by Judge Burns’ son Brendan and his widow, Emme Tomimbang.
Dr. Brady, pictured here in 2014, could not be at the White Coat Ceremony.
Dr. S. Kalani Brady
The first awardee has one of the most impressive lists of accomplishments I have ever seen. He is a local boy who traces his Hawaiian heritage to Kauaʻi. He graduated from St. Louis High School where he was both Senior Class President and Valedictorian, and embarked on his undergraduate studies at Harvard University where he engaged in premedical studies and performing arts, earning a degree in
Engineering and Applied Physics. He returned to Honolulu to the University of Hawaiʻi, earning a Masters Degree in Public Health, and then attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Turning away from what would have assuredly been a career of fame and prestige at any East Coast academic powerhouse university, he returned to his beloved islands to complete his residency in Internal Medicine here in Honolulu. And here, he stayed.
His awards and accolades are truly too numerous to mention, but include being named Physician of the Year by both the Honolulu County Medical Society and the Hawaiʻi Medical Association , and a Governor of the Hawaiʻi Chapter of the American College of Physicians. Besides all this medical stuff, he happens to hold a handful of Poʻokela Awards for singing performance over the years, and has appeared on KHON TV’s “Ask a Doctor” morning segment for over twenty years. Since 2005 he has been the editor of the Hawaiʻi Journal of Medicine and Public Health, formerly the Hawaiʻi Medical Journal, which serves as an crucial publication for Hawaiʻi-relevant research that might not be published elsewhere because of our specific and particular issues
unique to Hawaiʻi. At the medical school, he has held a variety of teaching and administrative positions including leading the Department of Native Hawaiian Studies. In one of his most satisfying roles, he leads groups of students to Kalaupapa on the Island of Moloka’i where he serves as the physician for that community and cares for the small number of Native Hawaiian residents who remain. “For his lifetime dedication to our medical school through bedside and clinic teaching, speaking to groups, tirelessly meeting with JABSOM medical and public health students, and countless other examples of selfless dedication to the mission of our medical school, the Friends of the Medical School hereby bestows the Hon. James S. Burns Award to Dr. Kalani Brady,” said Friends President James Fleming.
Dr. Parsa receives the award, presented by Dr. Fleming, Brendan Burns, son of James Burns, and Emme Tomimbang, Burns’ widow.
Dr. Don Parsa, Plastic Surgery Chief, Surgery Department, Former Friends President
When reflecting on the amazing achievements of our next awardee, I recalled a line by Lin-Manuel Miranda from the musical Hamilton: “Leaving a Legacy means planting seeds in a garden you never get to see”. It is this generosity of spirit that fills this hall as we introduce the next awardee. He began life in Iran, and grew up in France and Switzerland. He graduated from the Universite de Lausanne in Switzerland. He trained in microvascular and reconstructive surgery in Texas with famed surgeons Michael Debakey and Denton Cooley, and in Paris with Paul Tessier who is considered the father of craniofacial surgery.
He decided to set up his practice in Honolulu, where he quickly began teaching medical students and residents. For decades, he has taught the medical students how to suture. He taught me how to suture. Currently he serves as Chief of Plastic Surgery at The Queen’s Medical Center as well as on numerous professional organizations. He was named Physician of the Year in 2005 by the Hawaiʻi Medical Association, and received their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. He has raised his family to improve the lives of others, among them Hawaii physicians, causing his legacy to ripple ever outward into our community. He is also an accomplished painter whose artwork is displayed in various locations around the medical school and
community.
At the medical school, he served with distinction on the Board of Directors for The Friends of the Medical School and is the Immediate Past President. He conceived of and founded the JABSOM Osler Society, a student-led group dedicated to the exploration and promotion of humanism in medicine. He has received numerous teaching awards from medical students and surgery residents. An artist, a scholar, a surgeon. A teacher. A humanist-physician-philosopher. A planter of seeds.”For your visionary leadership, your obvious joy in teaching generations of students, and your undying dedication to the betterment of our medical school, The Friends of the Medical School bestows
The Hon. James S. Burns Award to Dr. F. Don Parsa,” said Dr. Fleming.
James Fleming
Our final awardee tonight is not a professor, or an alum of JABSOM, although he is a proud graduate of the University of Hawaiʻi. He isn’t even a physician. But, like his dear friend and compatriot Judge Jim Burns, he loves the medical school and has dedicated himself to its success. He served on the Board of Directors for The Friends of the Medical School for over a decade and held the office of Treasurer.
During his tenure almost twenty years ago now, there was serious talk in the state legislature of quitting the medical school due to serious budgetary issues. This growing an alarming call to discontinue medical education in Hawaiʻi was met with enthusiastic opposition by many groups including and importantly, by the Friends of the Medical School. Along with Judge Burns, he was instrumental in the kind of behind-the-scenes meetings and discussions that get these kind of situations handled. With the strong support of then-Governor Cayetano, the danger to the medical school died down. Subsequently the medical school was moved to its current home in in Kakaʻako, and he was instrumental in the creation of a landscaped area along the walkway behind the cafeteria. Take a stroll there and check out the bronze plaque. It won’t have his name listed. He is the kind of guy who quietly gets the job done and does not seek his own recognitions. But he always seemed to be in the room where it happens.
ʻOhana Day, JABSOM’s open-house for incoming students and their loved ones, was first conceived by him. He saw that one of the things that makes JABSOM unique is our feeling of ʻOhana, of beloved family. It isn’t only the students here on stage wearing their white coats that are starting a journey today, each of them is surrounded by a circle of dear family and loved-ones who will go on this journey with them. Welcoming our new friends and families into the glow of our friendship
and family, that is the legacy of ʻOhana Day that we happily continue tomorrow morning. There were countless other projects that he worked on, always quietly and reliably, always with dedication and deep love for our school and our community; from helping the Dean by handling the accounting of a major international conference at the Convention Center, to spearheading the original project to develop and make available T-shirts and merchandise that say “JABSOM” and promote the pride in our school that we all feel, the joys we take for granted now were once efforts shouldered and ideas sparked.
I did not nominate him. This little detail may not be very important to you. But it will be very important to him. He was nominated because he is an outstanding example of a non-physician community member who, because of his love for JABSOM, continues to give selflessly to our school’s mission as part of his life’s work. But like so often in the past, just offstage, just out of the spotlight and a step away from the applause. He has always been content to applaud for others. “For your remarkable contributions to JABSOM, your quiet influence, your undying devotion to the betterment of the medical school, the Friends of the Medical School hereby bestows The Hon. James S. Burns Award to his dear friend, and my father, Jim Fleming,” said Dr. Fleming.