Extraordinary, elite honor from Royal College of Physicians for Native Hawaiian Health’s Dr. Marjorie Mau

Date: April 6th, 2018 in JABSOM News

Pictured: Dr. Marjorie Mau (Biomedical Faces of Science portrait.)

By Tina Shelton, JABSOM Communications Director

Dr. Marjorie Mau has earned another extraordinary honor for her life’s work in healthcare and research. Dr. Mau, director of research for the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa (UHM), is one of only 25 U.S. who are designated as “Masters” in their profession who have now been selected to be fellows in the 500 year-old Royal College of Physicians. The elite group of 25 internists includes Dr. Griffin Rodgers, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, who visited JABSOM recently.

Dr. Mau, the first woman from Hawaiʻi ever ranked a “Master Physician” by the American College of Physicians (ACP), is professor and founding chair of the Department of Native Hawaiian Health. She was the first Native Hawaiian woman board-certified in both endocrinology and internal medicine. She is principal investigator of multiple grants at UHM, where she has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the last 25 years. In 2017, Dr. Mau was recognized by Creighton University as one of only three women to receive the alumni merit award in the long history of the institution. Dr. Mau graduated from the medical school at Creighton in 1985. She also is a proud alumna of Kalani High School on Oʻahu.

Mau’s enthusiasm for health disparities research, with a special emphasis on diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity, along with her advocacy for engaging diverse communities in the biomedical process and mentoring the next generation of emerging investigators reflect her commitments to public health awareness. She has widely broadcast her mission, caring for patients in rural communities on Molokaʻi as well as in urban Honolulu, Oʻahu, and served as the medical officer on Hōkūle’a, the iconic traditional voyaging canoe in the Pacific. She is the inaugural holder of the Myron “Pinky” Thompson Endowed Chair for Native Hawaiian Health Research, and earned the National Kidney Foundation Medical Professional of the Year 2002 and selection as an NIH Biomedical Faces of Science (2009-2013).