Chaminade University of Honolulu

Community and Public Health

Special Delivery  

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Dr. Thomas Shieh has delivered 11,000 babies on Guam and another 4,000 at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.

Dr. Thomas Shieh with his daughter Beverly in his arms after the Chaminade graduation ceremony.
Dr. Thomas Shieh with his daughter Beverly in his arms after the Chaminade graduation ceremony.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that literally translates to, “Nothing in the world is difficult for one who is determined enough to achieve it.” In other words, where there’s a will, there’s a way. This hasn’t always been the attitude Dr. Thomas Shieh ’87 projected when he was growing up in Salt Lake. He barely graduated from Moanalua High School, eking out a GPA of 2.2, just 0.2 points above the required average threshold to earn a diploma. College wasn’t even a consideration, let alone medical school.  

“I still have nightmares that Moanalua will call me one day and say they made a mistake,” quips Shieh, an obstetrician/gynecologist with a thriving, eponymous private clinic in Tamuning, Guam. “I was an average student with a 1.8 GPA at best until my senior year when I realized I might not graduate.”  

After graduation, Shieh enrolled at a local travel school for three months and earned a travel agent certificate, taking aim at a career in the tourism industry. He personally hand delivered his resume to all the airlines and travel agencies on the island. None responded.  

“Maybe if one of them had answered, I would have been the Roberts Hawaii,” says Shieh with a laugh. “But no one wanted to hire me, so I had a six-month gap between graduating from high school and starting university. Then one day, I was watching a Chaminade basketball game and I said to myself, ‘These guys are good.’ And this is how I learned about Chaminade—through basketball.”  

After applying to Chaminade, Shieh met with the late Sr. Roberta Derby who accepted Shieh’s application but placed him on academic probation for a year, and limited the number of courses he could pursue to just four. “It was English, math, social studies and I can’t remember the fourth one,” Shieh says. “During the summer of ’83, I got all As and I was now more motivated to continue my matriculation.”  

In the meantime, his high school sweetheart, Raven Rawlins—whom he met when he was a sophomore and she was a freshman at Moanalua—decided to follow him to Chaminade. He was studying biology and she was majoring in computer science. In his senior year, however, they learned that Raven was pregnant. After making two appointments at an abortion clinic, the young couple decided to keep the baby.

“I tell Beverly (the eldest of two daughters) this story all the time,” Shieh says candidly. “I got a lot of counseling from Henry Gomes (Chaminade’s director of Native Hawaiian Partnerships) who encouraged me that we could do this; that having a baby didn’t need to stop my education in pursuing a medical degree.”  

Dr. Thomas Shieh and Raven Shieh with their grandson Maui.

Having a 1-year-old infant and attending medical school seemed antithetical, but Shieh and Raven had a will…and they found a way: Enlist in the Navy so he could have his medical school paid for, as long as he committed to military service for four years after graduation.

During his third year at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Shieh witnessed his wife give birth to their second daughter, Tiffany. Inspired by the experience, he decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology.  

“I am thankful to my wife, Raven, whom I like to say went to medical school with me, but I’m the one who ended up with a degree; she was with me every step of the way—through all the challenges and fatigue to the clinical rotations and exams,” Shieh says. “She and my two daughters have meant everything to me.”  

With two young daughters, Shieh had little time to go to Milwaukee Bucks games or cheer on the Brewers, although he is a dedicated sports fan. Instead, he was parenting and studying from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., joking that the late hours were part of the training of becoming an obstetrician/gynecologist. Nearing the end of his matriculation at medical school, he was now preparing to become an active duty member of the Navy.  

“I was told by my Navy detailer that I was going to be stationed in San Diego, so I was OK with that,” Shieh recalls. “A month before graduating, though, I get a call from him, and he tells me ‘You’re going to Guam. We need you there.’ I had no idea where Guam was, and when I did an internet search, all I could find were references to super typhoons and brown tree snakes.”  

Initially reluctant to upend his young family to this U.S. island territory in Micronesia, Shieh eventually relented after his detailer promised that he would only have to serve two years in Guam. Afterward, he would be free to choose whichever duty station he would like to be relocated to serve out his remaining two years.  

That was 1996. Two years turned into four years, which extended to another four years and an additional four years. Twenty-seven years later, the popular Guam physician is committed to the community, and owns and operates a state-of-the-art, 9,000-square-foot clinic for women.  

“When I left the Navy, my office was 700 square feet and it only consisted of two exam rooms,” Shieh says. “I built this clinic two-and-a-half years ago to improve the full spectrum of healthcare for women and to enhance clinical teaching.”  

Dr. Thomas Shieh and Raven Shieh helped establish the Merv Lope Scholarship.
Dr. Thomas Shieh and Raven Shieh helped contribute to the Merv Lopes Scholarship.

To date, Shieh has delivered 11,000 babies on Guam and another 4,000 at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children. And when he’s not in the operating room, he’s in the classroom teaching the next generation of obstetricians and gynecologists at John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health.  

His support for the community, though, reaches far beyond the OR and maternity wards. His philanthropic endeavors span across the Pacific. For nearly the past 25 years, he has funded Guam’s best student-athletes with the Shieh Su Ying Scholar-Athlete award, named after his beloved grandmother.  

“I always credit my late grandmother for encouraging me to become a doctor,” Shieh says. “She always told me to help people and to do good for the community.”  

When he was a student at Chaminade, Shieh was voted in as the Senior Senator and helped place clocks in all the hall, half joking, he says, that the students were always late. He was involved with the yearbook, designing the silver medallion that graced the front cover. And he helped establish the Henry Gomes Endowment and the Merv Lopes Scholarship.  

“My journey at Chaminade was truly fun and memorable,” Shieh says. “Chaminade was my stepping stone; it gave me motivation and taught me the values of family spirit, faith, service, equality and justice. I truly cherish the years that I spent there.”                  

Pathway to Success

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Articulation Agreements help advance careers in healthcare

A 2018 alumnus, Hyo Park graduated with his Doctor of Medicine from George Washington University earlier this month. And he credits Chaminade with helping him get there. Thanks to the university’s Articulation Agreement program with The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Park was able to secure an early admission spot at the institution. And he recently learned that his first choice of residency at Hilo Medical Center (HMC) was approved. He will start later this summer.

“While at Chaminade, I learned the importance of dedicating myself to something greater than my personal ambitions—through service,” said Park, who attributed his successes to the connections, mentorships and support he received from the university. “I’m happy to return to Hawaii to serve the community.”

At its essence, an Articulation Agreement document is between two colleges or universities, and lays out a transfer plan between two program offerings. Depending on the program and degree, students can set an early course to advanced studies as an undergraduate—establishing a strong academic record and completing prerequisites while at Chaminade. The agreement helps the student by ensuring all completed classes (credits) transfer and shows a clear pathway for continued advancement.

Amber Noguchi met with Dr. Hyo Park while visiting Washington, D.C.

“Each agreement differs by institution, as well as degree,” explained Amber Noguchi, Ph.D., Chaminade’s Program Director with the Undergraduate Research & Pre-Professional Programs. “And each agreement represents a binding legal contract between the universities.”

Students who want to take advantage of participating in an Articulation Agreement, for example with Boston University or George Washington University, should apply in January of their sophomore year. “This timeline avoids any gap year between undergraduate and graduate programs,” Noguchi noted. “They would learn of their acceptance by April, and invited to take summer courses after their sophomore year. They would return to Chaminade for their junior year and then move to Boston for their senior year.”

Articulation Agreements streamline the transfer process for everyone involved. This will help alleviate the stress surrounding the application process, the credit transfer process and several other issues students might encounter when applying to a graduate program. By simplifying this process with transfer agreements, it is beneficial to all parties involved. 

In an editorial that she wrote for the Hawaii Dental Association Journal, Dr. Nora K. Harmsen shared Chaminade’s Healthcare Articulation Agreement Programs with her fellow dentists, citing that she was interested in the programs because many times her patients or staff members would discuss their goals of becoming a hygienist, dentist, occupational therapist or pharmacist.

“Chaminade University’s pre-professional program places students on a path that will lead them to a position in one of the much-needed healthcare fields here in Hawaii,” Harmsen wrote. “The student works with the profession’s counselors, and follows the required curriculum and requirements to graduate from Chaminade. They will then apply to one of the graduate programs, following the requirements for the program’s application process, which may include an interview and required GPA or DAT, MCAT, etc.

“As a result, these students will be on a direct path to the program of their choice, at one of the Programs with which Chaminade has a current Articulation Agreement,” Harmsen further noted. “Using this plan, the student does not have to apply to multiple programs to achieve their vocational dreams. I am always skeptical about the ‘too-good-to-be-true’ programs or ideas, but Chaminade has multiple graduates from these programs who have come back to encourage other students to use this plan for their future.”

Chaminade currently has Articulation Agreements with 11 different healthcare graduate schools across the nation, including A.T. Still University, Boston University, George Washington University, Pacific University, Samuel Merritt University, Tufts, University of Dayton and Western University. A recent contract with St. Mary’s University School of Law marks the first Articulation Agreement outside of the medical field.

“Since our pre-health program was established in 2010, we’ve seen tremendous growth,” Noguchi said. “Forty percent of our students, who apply to a health professional program, now do so with one of our 11 Articulation Agreements.”

Class Act

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Students, staff volunteer to help The Institute for Human Services

Not to be confused with Service Learning Day, Servant Leadership Day only happens once a year in January to coincide with Founders’ Week. In the half century since its introduction, Robert Greenleaf’s “Servant Leadership” theory has become increasingly popular among American corporations. Companies such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, The Container Store and FedEx have all adopted the theory that a leader must be a servant first and a leader second. This was indeed the case when Chaminade University’s Mitch Steffey joined students and fellow staff members in an effort to help The Institute for Human Services (IHS).

“We’re learning just as much from the community as we are giving to it,” says Steffey, Associate Director

Students volunteered to participate in Servant Leadership Day at IHS.

of Service Learning and Community Engagement. “The idea is you’re leading for the people to accomplish their goals and not ours. It’s also talking about the difference between sympathy and empathy.”

Silversword senior, Montserrat Lanfranco ’23, was among the volunteers who helped haul away old furniture, appliances and miscellaneous equipment in a Herculean effort to organize a large storage area at IHS. To Steffey’s point about empathy, Lanfranco muses that “everyone has a different situation as to why they’re homeless.”

During an on-camera interview with KGMB’s Hawaii News Now, Montserrat says by helping IHS—and thus, in essence, its clients—they’re digging into the roots of houselessness and helping a marginalized population of society plant new roots to promote a healthier type of system.

“At least that’s how I see it,” Montserrat concludes. “I feel like if we can get down to it (the root of the cause) then we can really solve the problem.”

Across the nation, homelessness has become a major flash point, attracting the attention and the ire of local, state and national lawmakers. On Dec. 19, 2022, the Biden-Harris administration released a federal plan for ending homelessness in America that starts with the ambitious goal of reducing homelessness by 25 percent by 2025. All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness builds on the success of previous plans and will do more than any previous federal effort to systemically prevent homelessness, and combat the systemic racism that has created racial and ethnic disparities in homelessness.

Mitch Steffey organized Servant Leadership Day with IHS.

Modeled after the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, The Hawai‘i Interagency Council on Homelessness (HICH) is an advisory body that serves as a statewide homelessness planning and policy development entity with broad representation from State and County government and the community. The council has adopted its own 10-year plan that utilizes an active implementation framework with the work divided into four general stages for implementation: exploration, installation, initial implementation and full implementation.

According to the released Ten-Year Strategic Plan and Framework, the proposal advances the vision of ending homelessness in Hawai‘i by implementing and sustaining a housing-focused system that draws upon the efforts of multiple partners and creates a clear pathway to stable housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The plan and vision acknowledge that the work to combat homelessness cannot be addressed by any single government entity or provider alone, and requires a shared community effort and “all-hands-on-deck” approach. 

Steffey shares the same approach when he organizes these types of service events, which he hopes will become more frequent. “What we did at the IHS shelter is the community engagement part of my job,” says the Pennsylvania native, emphasizing the second half of his official staff title. “I’m trying to get students out of their residence halls, out of their homes and into the community.”

Steffey distinguishes the difference between community service and learning service. Citing an example of the latter, he uses a biology student who could go out in the lo’i kalo (taro patch) to test the waters to see why one part of the patch produces more kalo than another.

“He/she can test if there’s too much acid in the water,” Steffey explains. “So we’re going to the community to fulfill a need with the expertise that we already have through our professors, courses and classrooms.

“You don’t have that at beach cleanup,” Steffey continues. “The cleanup is good for the community, but there isn’t much learning being done.”

Dr. Lorin Ramocki and Dr. Katelyn Perrault Recognized for their Passion and Innovation in Teaching

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Motivated. Innovative. Passionate. A trailblazer.

Those were some of the words used to describe this year’s faculty honorees of the Chaminade Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship awards, which recognize those going above and beyond to ensure student success in the classroom and contribute to their area of study in meaningful ways.

Lorin Ramocki

Dr. Lorin Ramocki, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing and Health Professions, received the Chaminade’s 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award for her tireless work to create hands-on simulations that promote “learning by doing.”

The simulations—which ranged from a mock homeless camp on campus to a COVID vaccination clinic to an “unfolding case study” into a Hepatitis A outbreak—were especially vital during the pandemic because COVID made some community placements for Nursing students impossible.

“The COVID pandemic created a loss of clinical rotations in both hospitals and community settings and faculty pivoted to simulation on campus as well as supporting COVID vaccination efforts,” said School of Nursing and Health Professions Dean Rhoberta Haley, PhD, who nominated Ramocki for the award.

Haley said Ramocki ensured experiential learning continued for students during the pandemic. “Dr. Ramocki is a truly creative, innovative, motivated, and effective teacher,” Haley said, “who makes Public Health content and clinical experiences come alive for each of our Nursing students.”

Ramocki said she is honored by the recognition and takes joy in using her creativity to develop “engaging learning environments to give students the best experience possible.” She added that her teaching philosophy is rooted in “developing a community within the classroom.”

“My philosophy on teaching students is really embedded in trying to inspire them to find their own interests—and then connect it back to something in public health to help them enhance their understanding and how they can impact the health of their own communities,” she said.

Katelynn Perrault

Meanwhile, the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics’ Dr. Katelynn Perrault was recognized with the 2021 Fr. John F. Bolin Excellence in Scholarship Award for substantial contributions to her field of study. The associate professor of Forensic Sciences and Chemistry was also recently honored with the John B. Phillips Award, which recognizes early career researchers who are making advancements in the field of two-dimensional gas chromatography, which involves separating chemicals present in complex samples.

Perrault is studying odors produced by bacteria associated with decomposing bodies.

Dr. Hans Chun, director of Education Leadership Programs at Chaminade, nominated Perrault for the honor and said she has been a “trailblazer in research” since she arrived at the University. “Kate embodies the concept that teaching and research are not mutually exclusive,” Chun said.

Chun also said her work has helped to “raise Chaminade’s scholarly profile.”

Perrault said receiving the award is a “landmark moment for me” at the University and has driven her to reflect on her work—and on the work of the student researchers she is mentoring. “Seeing their contributions to science recognized gives me great joy as a mentor,” she said. Perrault added that while many people think of research as something that’s done outside of the classroom, she sees it as something central to classroom learning. “Great things can be accomplished within a class when students are set with the task of creating new knowledge on their own accord. There is something about that experience that cannot be learned in any textbook.”

Community and Public Health: Power to Help People Live Healthier Lives

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Those at the frontlines of the healthcare industry don’t just work in hospitals.

As the COVID pandemic has made clear, frontline professionals also include health navigators and coaches, nonprofit healthcare administrators, public health project managers and advocates, health data analysts, epidemiologists—and a long list of other experts seeking to build community health.

School of Nursing and Health Profession students participating in a people without houses simulation.

In fact, healthcare that’s focused on prevention, health maintenance and access to care and delivered in the community is among the fastest-growing sectors of the industry, including in the islands, said Chaminade School of Nursing and Health Professions Associate Dean Dr. Pamela Smith.

Smith said Chaminade is helping to meet that strong demand for community health with its unique Bachelor of Science in Community and Public Health, launched in Fall 2020. The innovative program has already attracted significant interest and is preparing graduates for a host of new opportunities.

“Our community really needs community health workers,” said Smith. “They are trusted in our communities, which means patient outcomes are better. Because of that, there’s a significant demand for graduates with this degree and they are very employable after graduation.”

Chaminade’s four-year Community and Public Health degree puts a strong emphasis on individualized instruction, hands-on learning, service to others in the community and mentorship. Students can choose from one of four specializations: Community Health Worker, Environmental and Health, Non-profit Administration and Data Analytics, all of which feature a strong foundation of knowledge.

Smith, who oversees the program, said the specializations were designed following in-depth conversations with community stakeholders and significant research into Hawaii’s healthcare needs. Each one gives students a host of potential career options or opportunities for further study.

“For example,” Smith said, “as a patient care manager, you would be looking at medical records, communicating with the patient, communicating with support agencies to improve health outcomes and access to care. Or in data analytics, perhaps you’d be studying information from pedometers to make conclusions about broader trends and to find potential solutions to boost patient health.”

“There are so many potential pathways to success,” Smith added.

The degree also prepares students to take the national Certified Health Education Specialist exam.

Participants in the Community and Public Health program complete foundational coursework in everything from human biology to science writing, and from bioethics to intercultural communication. Additional specialized study is offered in health disparities, the impact of environment on human health, organizational leadership and behavior and community-engaged computing and data analytics.

Going forward, Smith hopes to continue to expand the program as it attracts more students, especially by extending networking opportunities and offering students additional service-learning experiences.

“This program prepares students to work in the field of healthcare and public health outside of traditional patient care environments,” she said. “The simple truth is community and public health workers have the power to help people live healthier lives, reaching their fullest health potential.”

Learning and Growing by Doing

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Dr. Lorin Ramocki believes in the power of learning and growing—by doing.

The School of Nursing and Health Professions professor has gotten high praise from her students, colleagues and community stakeholders for her innovative use of simulations—centered around hands-on, project-based learning—that help bring her curriculum to life and underscore its relevancy.

With clinical opportunities limited because of the pandemic, over the last academic year alone:

  • To prepare more than 60 Nursing students for work in COVID vaccination clinics, Ramocki created a mock clinic of her own and handed it over to participants to manage. Students learned about the varying roles at vaccination clinics, along with the patient education and monitoring.
  • Ramocki created a mock homeless camp (complete with volunteer actors) on campus for a simulation that gave Nursing students vital experience “treating” patients who are living on the streets, coordinating care with a treatment team and overcoming barriers to helping them.
  • Ramocki even had students put on their public health detective hats for a fast-paced epidemiology “unfolding case study” that tasked them with working out the source of a simulated Hepatitis A outbreak with 25 mock patients, each with unique back stories.
School of Nursing and Health Professions homeless simulation

Dr. Rhoberta Haley, Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Professions, said these types of simulations are obviously more engaging than lectures or rote memorization. And engaged students learn more. But their real power, she said, is in their immersive nature. In a simulation, students are embracing their roles as critical thinkers, as leaders and as team-based collaborators.

“Every step of the way in these simulations, Dr. Ramocki is asking her students to apply what they’ve learned and then build on it as they also work with their peers—whether it’s puzzling out a public health problem that impacts an entire community or ensuring that a single patient gets quality care,” Haley said. “Her students emerge from these simulations much more prepared for success.”

Haley added that she is especially impressed with how Ramocki has stressed not only the key foundational elements of her curriculum in the simulations, but important soft skills—like how to work with a patient to understand their unique needs or how to overcome the stigma of homelessness.

School of Nursing and Health Professions students participate in a vaccination clinic simulation

“That’s what learning by doing really means—doing the real work to understand its many facets.”

Dr. Ramocki said that she designed the simulations to engage students and provide critical clinical hours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Placements in the community for Public Health Nursing clinical course students were limited in 2020, with strict health protocols in place, so Ramocki improvised. “I wanted to give students the best experience possible during this time period,” she said, “when we were restricted to providing clinical experiences only on campus.” And so innovation was born out of adversity.

Dr. Ramocki’s simulated homeless camp was especially intricate.

School of Nursing and Health Professions homeless simulation

The realistic camp was built on campus and included eight case studies, with “patients” who had divergent backgrounds, back stories and health issues that were representative of the broader homeless population. In addition to helping students consider the psychosocial, financial and common medical problems among homeless residents, it also sought to help students develop empathy and reduce stigma as they worked comprehensively to serve a unique and high-needs patient population.

Dr. Ramocki also developed a tuberculosis clinic simulation that included modules for contact tracing, screening and testing, precaution protocols and various treatments. Each patient had a back story that students had to sift through in order check them in assessment and triage them to the appropriate service.

She said while the pandemic created the need for these simulations, she’ll continue to use them.

After all, she’s gotten her own hands-on learning in creating the simulations and rolling them out.