Four years after launching an effort to address Hawaiʻi’s rural healthcare needs, the first Kauaʻi Medical Training Track cohort has officially graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine.
The graduation marks a historic milestone for Kauaʻi and the state. Cohort graduates will complete their residency programs before returning to Kauaʻi to practice medicine.
Funded by a $10 million commitment from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, the multi-pronged program was established in 2022 to combat neighbor island physician shortages and improve the health and wellness of Kauaʻi’s families, according to a news release from the University of Hawai‘i.
“The success of the Kauaʻi Medical Training Track serves as a powerful proof-of-concept for the rest of the state,” said Dr. Sam Shomaker, Dean of JABSOM. “As Hawaiʻi’s only medical school, JABSOM plays a vital and unique role in solving our statewide physician shortage. By proving we can successfully train and retain doctors directly within a rural setting, we now have a replicable model that we hope to expand to Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, and Molokaʻi. This is how we ensure that all communities across our state have access to exceptional, locally rooted care.”
The 2026 graduating cohort includes five newly minted doctors who have deep ties to the neighbor islands and a dedicated focus on community health: Drs. Kirra Borrello (Internal Medicine, UCLA), Jamie Emoto (Pediatrics, UC Irvine), Erin Evangelista (OBGYN, Loma Linda University), Brent Fujimoto (Orthopedic Surgery, UH) and Ivana Yoon (Primary Care, UH).
“When we started this journey in 2022, I was incredibly excited to learn medicine from the very people who inspired me – including my childhood pediatrician, who became my preceptor,” said Emoto, who was raised on Kauaʻi. “Today, that excitement has evolved into a deep sense of responsibility and gratitude. We have built strong relationships with our community clinics and patients, and we are ready to give back to the communities that shaped us.”
Through Chan and Zuckerberg’s gift, the program fully covered the cohort’s tuition, fees, transportation and lodging for all four years of medical school in exchange for a commitment to return to Kauaʻi after residency and serve the community as physicians for at least four years. This comprehensive support allowed the students to focus entirely on their rigorous training and hands-on clinical rotations at Kauaʻi’s local healthcare centers.
The program was designed to immerse these new doctors in the nuances of rural medicine. Over the past four years, the students worked alongside Kauaʻi’s medical community, transforming from eager first-year students into confident, community-focused physicians.
Dr. Travis Hong, Director of Rural Training at the university’s medical school, oversaw the cohort’s progression from their welcome reception at Gaylords in 2022 to their graduation stage.
“It was wonderful to see our cohort start off as brand-new medical students, grow throughout the years, gain clinical skills. and integrate into the community,” said Hong. “To see them really get to know their preceptors, work alongside them and finally graduate as physicians has been an incredible thing to witness. This is exactly how we build a sustainable, compassionate healthcare workforce for Hawaiʻi.”
With subsequent cohorts already training behind them, the pipeline of locally tied, rural-focused doctors is officially flowing, promising a healthier future for Kauaʻi and all of Hawaiʻi.
