OCOM is pleased to announce the 2014 awardees who will be honored at our annual Cherry Blossom Dinner and Awards event on Saturday, April 5. The awards event brings the community together to honor the contributions of leaders who are helping transform health care by advancing Chinese medicine.

This year's awardees represent a diverse community of health care champions. "We are grateful for the outstanding contributions of the 2014 awardees in support of health care, Chinese medicine, and OCOM's mission, students and patients," said OCOM president Dr. Michael Gaeta. "Thanks to their collaboration and commitment, the transformation of health and health care has moved beyond mere possibility to action."

The 2014 dinner will be held at the Atrium at Montgomery Park on Saturday April, 5. The dinner begins with a silent auction from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, followed by the dinner and awards ceremony from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. A limited number of tickets are still available online at ocom.edu/cherryblossomdinner.

2014 Cherry Blossom Dinner and Awards Honorees

Community Partner in Healing Award 
Kaiser Permanente

OCOM Trustee, Dr. Charles Elder a physician at Kaiser Permanente, will accept the
2014 Community Partner in Healing Award on behalf of Kaiser Permanente.

The Community Partner in Healing Award, established at our inaugural Cherry Blossom Dinner last year, honors an OCOM community partner for their role in helping to transform health care.

Since 2009, Kaiser Permanente's Volunteer Gives fund has awarded OCOM a total of $60,000 to support expanding access to health care to low-income communities. Thanks to Kaiser's support in 2009, 2011 and 2013, OCOM's clinics have been able to deliver $15 health care services to more than 500 low-income individuals in our Chinese medicine intern teaching clinics. Their partnership has been instrumental in delivering much-needed care to a vulnerable population, and has supported OCOM's clinics and students in providing accessible and effective health services to those who would otherwise be unable to afford care.

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Mayor Charlie Hales will accept the 2104 Legacy Award.

The Legacy Award, offered for the first time this year, honors a community partner for their role in helping transform health care by advancing Chinese medicine. 

The City of Portland and Portland Development Commission (PDC) together played an instrumental role in our 2012 relocation to Old Town Chinatown. Thanks to their support, OCOM was able to meet a long-time vision to ensure the long-term success of the college: the new campus not only allows us to better serve our students, faculty, staff and patients in a larger, LEED Gold certified space, it has also helped extend our reach beyond the walls of the building to develop community partnerships to advance the profession of Chinese medicine for the future. 

The mission of the City of Portland's Portland Development Commission is to create economic growth and opportunity for Portland, one of the most globally competitive, equitable, and desirable cities in the world. Created by Portland voters in 1958, PDC has played a major role in keeping Portland one of America's most livable cities. During the past 50 years, PDC has taken forward 20 urban renewal plans that have helped change the face of the city-making it a better place to live for all Portlanders. As Portland's urban renewal and economic development agency, PDC is pursuing an aggressive strategy to create the most sustainable economy in the world by stimulating job creation, encouraging broad economic prosperity, and fostering great places on behalf of the City of Portland. 

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The Individual Partner in Healing Award honors an individual partner for their role in helping transform health care by advancing Chinese medicine.

Dr. Brad Malsin was selected to receive OCOM's 2014 Individual Partner in Healing Award due to his unwavering support in helping the college realize its long-time vision for a new campus. Thanks to his help, OCOM was able to double its educational space in a beautifully restored LEED Gold building to better serve our students, faculty, staff and clinic patients.

Prior to founding Beam Development, Dr. Malsin was in an ophthalmological specialty practice as an optometric vision rehabilitation specialist in New York City. In 1992, he moved to Portland and established Beam Development with a philosophy to focus on community based projects and historic preservation. Starting with the historic Fairmount Hotel, which was placed on the National Historic Registry, Beam Development has engaged in notable historic restoration projects in Portland including Oregon College of Oriental Medicine's LEED Gold project. His most recent project is the Eastside Exchange building at the Burnside Bridgehead project.

In December 2013, Malsin was named Commercial Real Estate and Development CEO of the Year by the Portland Business Journal.

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The Scholar Award honors an individual OCOM faculty member whose excellence as an educator and deep commitment to serve as a Chinese medicine ambassador in the greater community has made lasting change in the transformation of health and health care. 

Dr. Hong Jin was selected to receive the 2014 Scholar Award due to her visionary leadership at OCOM over the last 21 years. Dr. Jin's work to advance Chinese medicine through exemplary teaching, national and international leadership roles, innovative research, and as past faculty senate chair have each made substantial positive contributions to the field of Chinese medicine, as well as to the college.

A leader in the regional, national and international health care community, Dr. Hong Jin, Chair of Oriental Medicine at OCOM, is a 1985 graduate of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and a 2007 graduate of OCOM's Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine program.

Prior to joining the college's faculty in 1994, Dr. Jin served as a teacher and physician in Chinese medicine at Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NUTCM), a World Health Organization training center for traditional medicine. She currently sits on the national Educational Working Group for the Academic Consortium for Academic and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) promoting integrative medicine, and serves as a doctoral program faculty member at American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco, California.

Dr. Jin also currently serves as a Visiting Professor for Nanjing Medical University in the Acupuncture Department, where she teaches U.S. research methodology and helps design research to match U.S. research standards at the university. She frequently presents at community events throughout Portland, and was recently awarded the Northwest China Council Flying Horse Award (2012) in recognition for her service in promoting the benefits of Chinese medicine in the West.

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The Alumni Ambassador Award honors an OCOM master's or doctoral graduate who is advancing Chinese medicine through exemplary leadership in the community. This award recognizes contributions to the transformation of health and health care through Chinese medicine, including but not limited to, innovative health care delivery, advocacy efforts and integrative medicine leadership. 

Beth Howlett was selected to receive the 2014 Alumni Ambassador Award due to her ongoing efforts to strengthen the statewide Chinese medicine association, Oregon Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine's (OAAOM). As a former board member and now as president, Howlett has helped increase membership, and has provided exceptional advocacy leadership at the state level, resulting in Oregon Health Plan acupuncture benefits and a recent legal victory in the "dry needling" case, among others. This award also honors her work as a leader at OCOM as both a faculty and staff member, which has resulted in substantial, long-term contributions to the college's outreach and community-building efforts.

President of the OAAOM professional association, Howlett started as the membership director with nine student members and, through early and thoughtful engagement of students, has increased membership to 60. She has been a player in key legislation, represents the profession in the greater health care arena, produces engagement events and communications, has led a new strategic development planning initiative, and has elevated the reputation of the association as a whole.

Howlett graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1999 with a bachelor's in East Asian studies, and was subsequently selected to participate in Princeton-in-Asia's teaching fellowship program in Ningbo, China.  This led her to OCOM, where as part of her studies, she traveled to China for a third time to complete internship training at Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NUTCM). She now leads the annual OCOM clinical study abroad trips to NUTCM.

Her passion for East Asian studies and medicine led to her involvement in the ongoing Kam Wah Chung Co. Museum project, translating source texts and documents from Oregon's earliest practitioner of Chinese medicine in John Day, Oregon. As OCOM's Community Education Coordinator, she facilitates both community education and continuing education events. 

Upcoming Events

Visit ocom.edu/events for public classes, specialty clinics, continuing education, admissions seminars and other opportunities to connect with the college and our mission to transform health and health care.