The Communication Program is proud to present Dr. Christina Higa as our 2025 Distinguished Alumni awardee. Dr. Higa is a triple graduate of our Communication programs: COM BA (’01), COM MA (’02), and CIS PhD (’19). She also completed the Telecommunication and Information Resources Management graduate certificate program, a collaboration between the Communication Program and the College of Social Sciences’ Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). Dr. Higa currently serves as an Associate Specialist in SSRI. There, she is the director of the Telecommunications and Social Informatics (TASI) Research Program/Pacific Health Informatics and Data Center (PHIDC). Under her leadership, TASI/PHIDC programs work with partners across the University of Hawaiʻi system, State of Hawaiʻi and other government and academic institutions from the Asia and Pacific Islands region. Her team focuses on policy and planning for information and communications technologies and systems, particularly those focused on telehealth, health information technology and health informatics in Hawai‘i and the Pacific Islands.
Dr. Higa has also served as co-director of Pacific Basin Telehealth Resource Center (PBTRC) since 2014. In 2021, Dr. Higa and PBTRC were nationally recognized with the Supporting the Safety Net Award from the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP). The PBTRC provides technical assistance in support of the delivery of telehealth services to underserved populations, particularly those in rural areas across the Pacific Islands.
Professor Jenifer Sunrise Winter (Communication Program, SCI) notes that, “It is hard to describe the immense impact and passion that Christina and her teams have on providing access to critical information and medical care in Hawaiʻi and across the Pacific. Reducing digital divides is always at the heart of her work, and she has been consistently involved in, or at the forefront of, so many important efforts that have real and sustained impacts on the well-being of underserved communities. She is also a very humble person who always shines a light on her team and looks for ways to mentor and support others.”
Dr. Higa also teaches a popular undergraduate course in the Communication BA Program, Information Technology and Health Communication (COM 345). She works with students to understand the rapidly emerging health IT landscape, addressing issues such as big data health analytics to improve patient outcomes, telemedicine, artificial intelligence in healthcare, and wearable medical devices. She inspires students to learn about these emerging technologies and to consider how we can address disparities in access to and use of digital health technologies that may lead to inequities in healthcare access, outcomes, and delivery, particularly for vulnerable populations.