Greetings to our Hawaii PA Ohana from your Past-President.
Posted over 6 years ago by Christina Starks
Aloha!
Time has flown by and we are coming up on the Aloha Medical Conference Oct 30th – Nov 3rd at the Sheraton Waikiki. The HAPA General Meeting is Thursday, Nov 2nd at 6:30pm at the Sheraton Waikiki, 2nd floor ballroom. We would like to recognize and thank PA Bob Null for his continued efforts and commitment to organizing the Aloha Medical Conference year after year, without Bob there would be no conference. Mahalo Bob!
After our last communication in June many of you expressed to me how you would like to see diversity and increased representation by outer island PAs. Our request for leadership volunteers/nominations turned up. However several of you who declined shared that you would become more involved if the chapter were more active and more inclusive of thoughts and opinions of PAs from all perspectives and locations. We hear you and have been working diligent to make improve, modernize, and grow our PA Ohana. We want you to feel inclined and proud to be a part of an organization that is equitable, demonstrates diversity, and upholds beneficence to all of Hawaii PAs.
I am happy to announce that Rocco Laudadio, Jr. DHSc, PA-C has hit the ground running as our current President of HAPA. We are excited and grateful for Rocco’s leadership and expertise as he brings a plethora of experience as a clinician, military officer, preceptor, and local resident. He has taken a team approach to addressing some of the long-standing concerns you have expressed and executed plans swiftly. Our new website and membership management is up and running by MyPAnetwork. Our goal is to have improved web footprint and messaging capabilities that are informative and efficient. We want to grow HAPA and have increased representation and outreach STATE wide.
I have been serving as Past-President and AAPA HOD Hawaii Delegate. My focus continues to be professional outreach, recruitment, and meeting with local lawmakers and physician leaders to improve the PA practice landscape. My love and committment to HAPA and PAs of Hawaii is unwaivering.
Given the absence of volunteers/nominations and Executive Board vacancies, interim appointments have been made by Rocco; Joel Hamaguchi, Treasurer, and Matt Kwock, Secretary, have kindly agreed to stay on in their positions. Interim President-elect also appointed to myself. Now as by-law formality to complete our Executive Board, appointed executive board members need to be voted on, we ask current members please cast your vote, an election runner email will be sent. Non-executive board member appointment made: Bob Null Director-at-Large for Continue Medical Education, he has been solely running the Aloha Medical Conference. We are actively seeking new leaders and accepting CV, open positions remain Director-at-Large, outer island Regional Director, and Student Rep. We encourage outer island PAs to submit their CVs. Board members may vacate their position at any time so we encourage members to submit their CV in the event there becomes a vacancy and mid-year election is required.
As you may know a local PA program partnership with University of Washington MEDEX has been proposed with UH Hilo as the target. This is exciting news and HAPA will continue to support progress on this front. This, once again, reiterates the importance of strong connections with PAs state wide. You can read about the article from last year at this link. https://www.pressreader.com/usa/honolulu-star-advertiser/20161129/281479276024691
We hope to see you at the HAPA General Meeting at Thursday, Nov 2nd at 6:30pm at the Sheraton Waikiki. Thank you for your membership and please be sure to vote, watch your email inbox for a secure link from election runner. Most of all, come join our efforts as now we are on the brink of some exciting changes for Hawaii PAs and we need all the talent out there! We have a great team in place and we want to grow.
Warmest mahalo for your support!
Christina Starks