Erin Evangelista’s lifelong dedication to improving rural health was recognized with the Excellence in Public Health Award from the U.S. Public Health Service, honoring her impactful contributions to rural healthcare. Now a 4th-year medical student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), Evangelista has been passionate about addressing healthcare disparities in rural communities long before starting medical school.
“Honestly, it was kind of like a full circle moment,” Evangelista said. As part of JABSOM’s inaugural Kauaʻi Medical Training Track, she now trains and lives on the Garden Isle. The immersive program has deepened her understanding of rural healthcare needs.
Early experiences inspire medical journey
Evangelista’s passion for rural communities stems from personal experience. After spending her early childhood in California, Evangelista moved to the Philippines at age 12, where she witnessed firsthand the lack of health education and career exposure.
“We didn’t really know what it meant to be a physician or what it meant to be a nurse,” she said.
Before JABSOM, Evangelista served with the U.S. Public Health Service in South Dakota, working on Indian Health Reservations. With an engineering background, she approached rural health from an infrastructure standpoint, gaining a unique perspective on healthcare access.
Strengthening health education on Kauaʻi
Since beginning the Kauaʻi Medical Training Track in 2022, Evangelista noticed limitations in care available to Kauaʻi residents. These insights led her to launch the Kauaʻi Health Education Initiative, aimed at strengthening health education and career exposure for local high school students.
“I felt like I didn’t get a good exposure to what it meant to be healthy,” she said. “A lot of the students [and faculty] were saying, ‘Oh, we don’t have a lot of the opportunities that the Oʻahu students have.’”
Evangelista hopes to remain on Kauaʻi as an OB/GYN after residency. “I love the community on Kauaʻi. Everything and everybody is so tight-knit,” she said. “It’s really exciting to see where Kauaʻi’s health resources and public health, in general, is going to go.”
