KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Tuesday | March 27, 2007
Benjamin B.C. Young, M.D.
Executive Director,
Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence – John A. Burns School of Medicine,
University of Hawai'i
Benjamin B.C. Young, M.D. was born and raised in Hawai'i. He attended Roosevelt High School in Honolulu and received his bachelor's degree in English literature from Milligan College in Tennessee and his medical degree from Howard University in Washington D.C.
A psychiatrist by training, Dr. Young was former Dean of Students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, was former Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Hawai'i, and served as Chief of Staff at Castle Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii.
Dr. Young was former National Chairman of the Group on Student Affairs under the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), was elected on several occasions as Chair of the Western Region Minority Affairs Section, and was Chair of the Advisory Committee, Office of Minority Health, under former Surgeon General David Satcher for the Family and Community Violence Prevention Program. He is a founding member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and helped build the canoe, Höküle`a. He was the physician on the maiden voyage of Höküle'a in 1976.
He was honored in 2003 as "Distinguished Alumnus" of Milligan College. He is the recipient of numerous honors from the Hawaiian community and in 2005 received the prestigious "Living Treasure of Hawai'i" award by the Honpa Hongwangi. He was honored by the Queen Emma Hawaiian Civic Club with their "Outstanding Hawaiian" for 2005. He was also given the "Kaonohi Award" by Papa Ola Lökahi in July, 2005. In 2006, he was the featured guest speaker at the Milton Hershey College of Medicine Lectureship in Medical History, in Pennsylvania.
He is Chair of the National Council for Diversity in the Health Professions and is the executive director of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai`i.
Wednesday | March 28,
2007
Lehua Mark Veincent
Principal, Keaukaha
Elementary School
Lehua Mark Veincent has genealogical ties to Ka'ü, Puna, and Keaukaha on the Island of Hawai'i. Affectionately called Kumu Lehua by many, his career in education began with the conception of the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program in 1987 and has served as a teacher at Keaukaha School, Hilo, Pa'ia Elementary School on Maui and Ke Kula 'o Nawahïokalani'öpu'u when it was established in 1994. He has taught Kindergarten through 12th grades. He has served as a lecturer and UH Supervisor in the education department at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. He continues to serve as coordinator of the Keaukaha Night Tutorial Program for grades K-12 and Summer School Programs for high school students of Keaukaha for 12 years along with Aunty Luana Kawelu of the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center.
For twenty years Kumu Lehua has taught and coordinated the Hawaiian Language, Literature, and Cultural classes for the DOE Community School for Adults. He continues to teach Hawaiian Language in the evenings in Keaukaha and recently at the Külani Correctional Facility. In 2001 he co-founded the Ke Ana La'ahana Public Charter School, a 7th through 12th grade Hawaiian cultural base school within Keaukaha – this was the 3rd public high school established in Hilo. Kumu Lehua has served as a State Resource Teacher in Hawaiian Studies and Language, Vice Principal at Hilo Intermediate and Hilo High Schools, and Principal of Ke Ana La'ahana. He is currently Principal of Keaukaha Elementary School – a K-6 school on Hawaiian Home Lands. He is happy to be back in the community of his grandparents and parents.
Lehua earned his Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and a Master's Degree in Educational Administration from the University of Hawai'i at Mänoa. Kumu Lehua is currently in the Doctoral Program at University of Hawai'i at Mänoa.
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Last Updated: 03/23/07
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