Robert Hirokawa currently serves as the CEO for the Hawaii PCA, a position he has held since 2011. Prior to his work at the HPCA, Robert served as the epidemiologist for the Hawaii Department of Health’s diabetes and asthma programs, and the Healthy Hawaii Initiative. Robert earned his MPH in epidemiology and DrPH from the University of Hawaii.

Kenneth S. Fink, MD, MGA, MPH has served as Director of the Hawai‛i Department of Health since January 9, 2023 after being appointed by Gov. Josh Green. 

Dr. Fink has extensive public and private sector experience. 

Prior to joining DOH, Dr. Fink worked as the Vice President for Medicare & Medicaid Programs at HMSA. Before that he was the Director of Student Health Services for Kamehameha Schools. 

His government work includes serving as the State Medicaid Director for Hawai‘i, the Chief Medical Officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Region 10, and the Director of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Evidence-based Practice Centers programs at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 

Dr. Fink was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, Kerr White Visiting Scholar, and Excellence in Government Fellow. He attended Haverford College, received combined Medical Doctor and Master of Government Administration degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and was awarded a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He completed residencies in family medicine at the University of Washington and preventive medicine at UNC. 

Dr. Fink is board certified in both family medicine, and general preventive medicine and public health. He has been awarded the degree of Fellow by both the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Preventive Medicine. 

In addition, Dr. Fink retired as a Colonel in the United States Air Force. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and served as both the Chief of Aerospace Medicine and the Medical Group Commander in the Hawai‘i Air National Guard. 

Emmanuel Kintu is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kalihi-Palama Health Center (KPHC) a private 501(c) (3), Federally Qualified Community Health Center that provides quality health care and social services to over 22,000 residents of Honolulu, Hawaii, annually.

Prior to joining KPHC, he served as the founding CEO of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network - a multi-specialty Network serving over 200,000 patients; and as Vice President, Management Officer of People’s Heath Centers, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri. Before joining the non-profit sector, he was with General American Life Insurance Company (GALIC) and the Metropolitan Life Insurance family of companies (MetLife) where he served as an insurance executive for over 12 years. Positions included: Vice President, Reinsurance Administration and Vice President, Account and Client Relations.

He serves on Boards of Directors of: AlohaCare Health Plan and the Hawaii Primary Care Association. He also serves on a few Advisory Boards.

Emmanuel earned a Doctor of Management degree from Webster University, a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) from Saint Louis University, - both in St. Louis, Missouri, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Public Administration from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Additional executive education includes the Johnson & Johnson UCLA Health Care Executive Program and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration Building Competitive Advantage Through Operations Program.

He was awarded the 2009 Johnson & Johnson/UCLA Health Care Executive, Community Health Improvement Project Award. He co-chaired Bridges Across Racial Polarization - a program that was recognized as a “Solution for America” by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change” in 2002.

Dr. Lee Ellen Buenconsejo-Lum has held several Dean’s office leadership roles at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) since 2016 and is serving as the Interim Dean from January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. She was the Designated Institutional Official at JABSOM until January 2023 and built a team whose focus is to ensure the JABSOM residency and fellowship programs graduate excellent physicians who can productively engage in population healthcare activities to achieve health equity in the populations they serve. She also served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for three years, coincident with her roles as the COVID-19 lead for JABSOM, the main UH liaison to the numerous COVID-19 and vaccination initiatives coordinated by the State and County of Honolulu, and part of a UH leadership team that guided numerous processes and policies at UH to keep all members of the UH ʻohana safe, learning and working. As the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, she was responsible for addressing strategic educational program development, alignment, and accreditation of JABSOM’s health sciences programs across all pre-clinical and clinical departments and the continuum of medical education, from pathway programs through faculty affairs. She has been integrally involved in all major strategic initiatives since 2016, including the transformative academic affiliation agreements with Hawai‘i’s two largest health systems. She was the founding co-lead of the JABSOM Coordinating Committee on Opportunity, Diversity, and Equity, a multi-stakeholder group that reviews and advises the school on diversity and equity initiatives across all of the school’s missions, including research.

Before joining the Dean’s office, she was faculty in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, serving in various leadership roles, including its Residency Program Director and Department Vice-Chair. Her scholarly activities continue to focus on reducing health disparities in Hawai‘i and the US Affiliated Pacific Island (USAPI) jurisdictions through building health system capacity in the USAPI. Efforts include improving prevention and screening for cervical cancer and maintaining a regional cancer surveillance system built under her leadership. Nationally, Dr. Buenconsejo-Lum has been involved in several initiatives to promote medical education that embraces diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racist medical education.

Her work, in partnership with the entire JABSOM ‘ohana, across the University of Hawai‘i, with our major affiliated health systems, and with community partners, is to continue transforming medical and healthcare education and care delivery in Hawai‘i as part of JABSOM’s vision of ALOHA: Attain Lasting Optimal Health for All.

Judy Mohr Peterson, PhD, is the Medicaid Director for Hawaii and a nationally recognized leader in health care delivery system reform and Medicaid policy. She served as president of the board of the National Association of Medicaid Directors from 2017-2019. She began her career with Oregon’s Medicaid program in 1997 and served as Oregon’s Medicaid Director from 2009 to 2015. In that role she was one of the architects of Oregon’s successful health system transformation. Before working for the Oregon Medicaid program, Dr. Mohr Peterson received her doctoral degree in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kyu (“Q”) Rhee, MD, MPP, joined NACHC in 2023 to lead efforts to advance health equity and support the mission of community health centers, which provide high-quality, affordable, transdisciplinary primary care services to more than 31.5 million people at over 14,000 sites across the nation.

As a purpose-driven physician executive, scientist, teacher, and entrepreneur, Dr. Rhee has a reputation synonymous with leadership, innovation, and transformation across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. Throughout his career, Dr. Rhee has actively worked to advance primary care, public health, and health equity for underserved populations.

Before joining NACHC, Dr. Rhee held the position of Senior Vice President and Aetna Chief Medical Officers at CVS Health. He led a team of over 1,500 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals in the integration and delivery of clinical and population health solutions to improve the health and delivery of the “Quintuple Aim” for up to 65 million people via commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, behavioral health, digital health, student health, vision, dental, and voluntary health plans. Dr. Rhee served for a decade as the Chief Health Officer at IBM, where he and his team led IBM’s global efforts to transform health using data, analytics, artificial intelligence, services, and research.

During the time of the Affordable Care Act, Dr. Rhee held the office of Chief Public Health Officer at the Health Resources and Services Administration. Dr Rhee also worked at the National Institutes of Health as the Director of Innovation and Program Coordination.

Prior to his public service, Dr. Rhee was the Chief Medical Officer at Baltimore Medical System and worked as a National Health Services Corps primary care physician and Medical Director for Unity Health Care.

Dr. Rhee was Chief Resident and completed his medical residency training in both internal medicine and pediatrics at Cedars-Siani Medical Center in Los Angeles with dual board certification. He earned his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and also holds a master’s in health care policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry