Submission information and APIC honors individual(s) or a community organization for their work and commitment to AAPI public health and health equity. Award winners are presented and honored at APHA Annual Meeting & Expo.
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1. Best Published Paper Award
This award recognizes the best published paper within the past year in the field of public health as it applies to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander health issues.
2022 Winner: Kevin Nguyen, PhD
Nguyen KH, Wilson IB, Wallack AR, Trivedi AN. Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Patient Experience Of Care Among Nonelderly Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees. Health Affairs. 2022 Feb 1;41(2):256-64.
Kevin H. Nguyen, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management at Boston University School of Public Health. He is a health services researcher whose work focuses on the quality and equity of care delivered to marginalized populations, with a particular focus on the roles of Medicaid policy and care delivery reform on improving patient experience. He received his PhD in Health Services Research from the Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. He also holds a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.
2. Community Organizing Recognition Award
This award recognizes a community organization that has positively impacted the health and quality of life of AAPI communities in the United States and its jurisdictions.
2022 Winner: Darrah Kauhane, MS, CPO (Project Vision Hawai’i)
Darrah Kauhane, MS, CPO received her B.S. in Public Health and Community Medicine from the University of Washington and her M.S. in Developmental and Reproductive Biology at the University of Hawai’i. She is currently finishing her M.P.H. at the University of California at Berkeley. She began her career fueled by a passion against cancer at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, followed by the Institute for Biogenesis Research in Hawai’i. Understanding the underlying cause of disease, Darrah began serving rural communities and fighting related health disparities. For eight years, she ran an organization providing ophthalmic care to villages across the globe. Establishing sustainable clinics, coordinating medical education, and providing sight-saving surgeries in over 20 countries, she learned to manage in the most remote of locations. Bringing international experience home to her own people of Hawai’i, she now oversees Project Vision Hawai’i, an organization that provides mobile health, hygiene and social services to rural and houseless communities across the island state. Since March 2020, PVH has played a crucial role in the fight against covid-19 for the vulnerable populations in Hawai’i. Project Vision Hawai’i has the largest mobile health screening program in Hawai`i that provides statewide services in communities with significant access-to-care challenges related to income, lack of insurance, geographical location, or cultural conflict.
3. Best Student Abstract Award
This award recognizes a best student abstract submitted to present at APHA Annual Meeting. All accepted abstracts will be automatically considered.
2022 Winner: Jay Mantuhac, MPH
Mantuhac J, Horse AG. Understanding Mechanisms for Inadequate Prenatal Health Care Utilization among Asian American women in Arizona vs. in California. Poster presentation at: 2022 American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference; Nov. 6-9, 2022; Boston, MA.
Jay Mantuhac is a recent MPH (Biostatistics Emphasis) graduate from UC Irvine and currently works as a Clinical Data Research Analyst at UCLA Health. He is an aspiring Public Health Data Scientist and is really interested in using data science and biostatistics in order to solve issues in public health and healthcare, especially when it relates to the health of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.