Maria B.J. Chun, Ph.D. is a Faculty Specialist and Associate Chair for Administration and Finance in the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s (UHM) Department of Surgery. In 1996, she obtained her doctoral degree in community and cultural psychology from the UHM Department of Psychology. During her graduate studies, she researched factors influencing the educational attainment of Asian Americans and issues facing multicultural education. When she started in her current position in 2006, she focused her scholarly activities on cross-cultural healthcare in medicine. Her primary research focus has been on the development of a standardized tool to assess the efficacy of “cultural competency” or cross-cultural health care training. This includes work on the development of a cultural standardized patient exam for use as an assessment tool in the department’s general surgery residency program. Dr. Chun also teaches courses for the UHM Honors Program and volunteers as an advisor for the UHM Pre-Health Advising Center (PAC).
Highlights of Dr. Chun’s research efforts include being invited to speak at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress’ first-ever panel session on cultural competency in 2014 and on a subsequent panel in 2021. She was also invited to serve as a consultant on Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Provider Awareness and Cultural dexterity Toolkit for Surgeons (PACTS) project, which aims to create a standardized curriculum.
