World Health Awards, Living Treasure of Health Kenneth Francis Brown

Honorary
Co-Chairs

U.S. Senator
Daniel Inouye

U.S. Senator
Daniel Akaka

U.S. Congressman
Neil Abercrombie

U.S. Congresswoman
Mazie Hirono

Governor
Linda Lingle

Executive
Committee

Dr. Earl Bakken

Kenneth Brown

"Auntie Aggie" Cope

James Kekai Jacoby

Dr. Kathie Kagawa

Kamaki Kanahele

Christina Kemmer

Dr. Diane Nomura

Ronald Sakamoto, Esq

Dr. Terry Shintani

Robert L.P. Tong, Sr.

Formally designated a “Living Treasure” in 1988, Kenneth Francis Brown
is best known as the former Chair of the board of Queens Health
Systems, as a State Senator, and as the former board chair of the East
West Center. He is part of a rich heritage of Hawaiian tradition and
much more. He is the great grandson of John Papa Ii, advisor to King
Kamehameha IV, and is a successful businessman and architect. Most of
all he is a visionary who has had the ability to move the community in
the right direction and inspire others to do the same. It has always
been Kennys dream for Hawaii to be a world center for health, and for
traditional Hawaiian healing principles to be the key to solving the

health care crisis we face today. The World Health Awards is one way to perpetuate this
dream by recognizing those people who have demonstrated a career of living those
principles to make an impact on the health of the community and of the world.

Formally designated a “Living Treasure” in 1999, Dr. Earl Bakken
revolutionized the field of medicine in the 1950s when he invented the
wearable pacemaker. His genius continues to improve and save lives as
electronic devices from his company, Medtronic, are implanted in
people all over the world at the staggering rate of one every six
seconds. After a full career building Medtronic, he came to Hawaii in
1991 with retirement in mind. But he had a calling to do more.
Encouraged by his new-found hanai brother, Kenny Brown to help in
the effort to improve the health of underserved, Dr Bakken
spearheaded the funding and creation of the North Hawaii Community

Hospital and grass roots health organizations such as Tutus House, Five Mountains Medical
Community, the Kohala Center and the Bakken Foundation. Dr Bakkens combination of
Hawaiian spirit and global presence allows the dream to reach around the world.

Formally Designated a “Living Treasure” in 1987, “Auntie Aggie”
Kalanihookaha Cope, is a renaissance woman in the truest sense of
the word. She is a grand master kumu hula and native Hawaiian
traditional healer. She is the kupuna advisor to the Hawaii Health
Foundation. In the 1960’s she was among the vanguard of the Hawaiian
renaissance and field coordinator of the State Foundation of Cultural
and Arts. She was Chair of the City and County Culture and Arts
Commission and founded the Waianae Coast Culture and Arts Society.

She was an educator by profession and has served as board chair of numerous
organizations including Papa Ola Lokahi, the Native Hawaiian Health Care organization.
She exemplifies healing through living traditional Hawaiian principles and service to the
community.

Formally Designated a "Living Treasure" in 2006, Dr. Terry Shintani is
one of the youngest individuals to receive this designation. He is a
unique physician-nutritionist-community health advocate and medical
school professor. He has served the underserved and Native Hawaiian
communities throughout his career with hundreds of programs and
activities. One of his programs won the highest national award from
the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He has been
featured in News week, CBS This Morning, CNN News, Dateline NBC,
and as of 1995, he appears in the Encyclopedia Britannica. As a

lawyer, he authored landmark legislation that legalized Native Hawaiian Healing practices
so that it may be practiced and preserved. Currently, he serves as the Associate Chair of
Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine
and is on the National Advisory Board of the American College of Life style Medicine.