Naomi Judd to address employee benefits meeting

Naomi Judd, who was forced to retire as a country singer in 1991 because of hepatitis C, will be among speakers at a conference starting tomorrow at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

She will speak from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on health care reform and the importance of health care for all Americans at the 51st Annual Employee Benefits Conference of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Judd started a research and education fund to find a cure for hepatitis C after her illness.

Among local speakers:

» Dr. Richard Chung, senior vice president, Hawaii Medical Service Association Health Services Division, will speak from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Monday on managing the health care continuum.

» James Isamu Kuroiwa Jr., director of the Hawaii Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, will speak Tuesday form 1 to 2:15 p.m. on labor-management initiatives.

About 17,000 delegates are expected at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans meeting, held in Hawaii every five years since 1970. The foundation is a nonprofit, educational association dedicated to exchange of information and education of those who serve employee benefit plans.