This year, public health doctoral students Rica Dela Cruz and Olivia Uchima had winning entries in Delta Omega’s National Student Poster Contest. Delta Omega is the national honor society for public health, and the UH Office of Public Health Studies (OPHS) is home of the Gamma Chapter. As winners, they will be featured at the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in November.

Rica and Olivia will each receive $350 from the national Delta Omega office to defray travel expenses to the APHA meeting. Matching funds are provided by OPHS ($350) and from alumni donations to the Elmer J. Anderson Fund at UH Foundation. Congratulations to Rica and Olivia!  

The Gamma Chapter also hosted its annual Distinguished Lecture and Induction Ceremony on May 8, 2019. This year’s keynote address was presented by Dr. Judy Mohr Peterson, Medicaid Director and Administrator for Med-QUEST, State of Hawaii Department of Human Services. Dr. Peterson spoke on “Medicaid – Bridging Public Health and Health Care Delivery Systems.”  This event is supported by donations to the Public Health Dean’s Fund at UH Foundation.

At the ceremony, 10 students (including six graduate students and four undergraduate students) and one faculty member were inducted into Delta Omega. Induction into Delta Omega is noted to: “encourage research and scholarship among students of public health and to recognize attainment and achievement in the field of public health.”

Congratulations to our newest student inductees: Chloe Asato, Marichie Barbasa, Maggie Morris, Wilson Nguyen, Keala Patterson, Jacob Pennington, Dianne Raquiz, Haleigh Romero, David Stupplebeen, and Mika Thompson; and faculty inductee Dr. Catherine Pirkle.