State names new chief disease tracker
Star-Bulletin staff
Dr. Sarah Y. Park has been appointed by the state Department of Health as state epidemiologist and chief of the Disease Outbreak Control Division.
Park was the division's deputy chief for four years under Dr. Paul Effler, who has moved to Australia.
She previously was an epidemic intelligence service officer assigned to the Respiratory Diseases Branch in the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We are very proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Park as the new leader for Hawaii's disease surveillance and investigation activities," said state Health Director Chiyome Fukino in a news release.
"Dr. Park brings a lot of experience to the position as a board-certified pediatric infectious diseases specialist. We are confident in her ability to take our disease surveillance to new heights, which will help us better protect the public's health."
Park was part of CDC teams receiving commendations for outstanding work during the 2002 West Nile virus outbreak in the United States and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in Asia.
She received a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her medical degree from Boston University. Her pediatrics training was at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, and her pediatric infectious diseases training at the University of California, San Francisco.