Keawe Kaholokula’s National Academy of Medicine Honor Redefines Public Health Leadership
Above: Professor Keawe Kaholokula celebrates with his JABSOM colleagues
FROM LAUNCHING THE PATIENT SAFETY MOVEMENT TO SECURING COMPENSATION for veterans impacted by chemical exposure, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has been at the forefront of advancing science, informing health policy and catalyzing action for optimal health throughout the United States. Their select members are top scientists, clinicians, innovators and business leaders committed to scientific and medical excellence and public service.
In 2024, Professor Joseph Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) became one of 100 new members, and the first known Native Hawaiian selected to join the prestigious organization. Reserved only for those who have made transformative contributions to health, science and medicine, Kaholokula, chair of JABSOM’s Department of Native Hawaiian Health, is no stranger to trailblazing work.
His career has redefined the relationship between culture and healthcare, making major strides in treating and preventing chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease, which disproportionately impact underserved populations. Bringing together academic and cultural, community-based experts, Kaholokula has co-produced and co-disseminated groundbreaking research that blends culturally grounded methods of intervention with modern medicine and education.
Among the most influential of his projects is the Partnership for Improving Lifestyle Intervention (PILI) ‘Ohana Project, also known as POP. The nearly two-decade-long community-based participatory research initiative applied a novel approach to the Diabetes Prevention Program’s Lifestyle Intervention, incorporating family- and community-focused intervention for weight loss. By partnering with community health centers, Hawaiian homestead communities, and Native Hawaiian healthcare systems, the project developed culturally tailored interventions that have helped thousands across Hawai‘i and beyond. Those who participated in POP were able to lose and sustain weight loss, improve systolic and diastolic blood pressure and enhance physical functioning, while lowering their overall risk of diabetes.
Offshoot projects like PILI@Work, PILI ‘Āina, and PILI Pasifika helped to promote and implement health interventions in everyday spaces like workplaces and community centers throughout Hawai‘i, the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands, and the U.S. mainland. These projects empowered local organizations to take the lead in developing culturally relevant health interventions, prevention practices, and values that yielded similar results to POP.
“The community partners and community leaders of PILI ‘Ohana really deserve all the praise in advancing community-engaged research and shifting the paradigm from privileging Western notions of health promotion to valuing Pacific perspectives in this space,” said Kaholokula. “Because of their pioneering work, PILI ‘Ohana has continued to inform the science of health disparities and what meaningful community engagement in research looks like, as well as inspire other Indigenous and minoritized communities to address their most pressing health concerns on their terms and in ways that are culturally relevant and sustainable.”
Another pioneering initiative is Kaholokula’s KāHOLO Project, which found that hula (a traditional Hawaiian dance) could significantly reduce cardiovascular disease risk.
Participants with high blood pressure in the project’s hula intervention group lowered their systolic blood pressure by an average of 17 points and sustained improvement six months after classes ended. By integrating mind, body and spirit, hula provided participants a sense of joy, cultural pride, and connection to both the environment and community. The research findings received national and international attention showing how a community-based cultural practice like hula can serve as a clinically proven approach to help lower blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular risk.
Kaholokula is also currently working on a similar research project called ‘IKE Kūpuna, to determine potential health interventions for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in high-risk Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations. The project applies and adapts hula intervention methods from the KāHOLO project, reflecting other research that has found that dance-based interventions can improve blood flow to the brain and enhance neural connections and cognitive abilities, while stimulating parts of the brain associated with social cognition and emotional regulation, reducing stress, and improving mood by releasing endorphins.
“KāHOLO showed how we can achieve both clinically and socioculturally positive outcomes for our Indigenous Pacific communities,” said Kaholokula. “By leveraging a highly valued cultural practice, we were able to show how we can reduce chronic disease risk while strengthening and reinforcing participants’ cultural identity and pride and their connections to kānaka (people), ‘āina (land), and ‘ike kupuna (elderly wisdom).”
His leadership also extends to building local expertise, capacity and impact through JABSOM’s Center for Pacific Innovations, Knowledge, and Opportunities (PIKO). This unique Hawai‘i-based initiative focuses on developing community-engaged and community-driven clinical and translational research to address the most pressing health concerns of underrepresented populations.
Through a team-science approach, PIKO is working with partner institutions across the University of Hawai‘i and communities statewide to leverage and develop new resources and research opportunities that span clinical trials and community-based efficacy research to public health and policy impact, to better understand and implement impact-driven healthcare interventions.
PIKO has helped many junior and other faculty in Hawai‘i advance their research careers, secure their first federal research awards, and learn the importance of community engagement while discovering novel ways to address health issues impacting our populations here in Hawai’i. PIKO has also opened up many opportunities to collaborate nationally with other clinical and translational research centers to focus on clinical trials that can improve patient care and reduce health inequities in patient outcomes.
“Dr. Kaholokula’s election to the National Academy of Medicine is a groundbreaking moment for the John A. Burns School of Medicine, but also the Native Hawaiian community,” said JABSOM Dean Sam Shomaker. “Through his community-engaged research, culturally grounded interventions, and community-based trials, he has earned community trust and ensured their global representation. Keawe has fought to uncover health disparities in Native Hawaiians and his work will profoundly impact disease prevention in this population for generations to come.”
Kaholokula’s election to NAM is both a culmination and a beginning. It affirms his decades of service and innovation in health promotion, and signals a shift in the broader biomedical field — toward more inclusive, culturally grounded, and community-empowered approaches to health equity.
Since joining NAM last year, Kaholokula has already started contributing to national efforts. He currently serves on an ad hoc committee advising on health monitoring and clinical follow-up for communities impacted by the 2021 jet fuel leak at Red Hill, bringing a culturally responsive and community-centered lens to federal-level public health policy.
Looking ahead, he hopes to broaden NAM’s approach to evaluating health evidence to include social and cultural determinants of health, population-specific data, and lived experience.
“Being a NAM member comes with a heavy kuleana (responsibility) that I take seriously. It is an opportunity to amplify the voices of our Pacific communities — voices that are often drowned out by larger minoritized groups in the U.S.,” said Kaholokula. “It is an opportunity to have a seat at the table to advance our health concerns and to spotlight the beauty of our Pacific peoples and cultures, and their values in addressing our most pressing health concerns.”