UCLA Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer Promoted to Full Professor

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Department are proud to announce that Dr. Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, Ph.D., M.N., R.N., has been promoted to Full Professor (accelerated to Step II) in the Department of Asian American Studies of the UCLA College of Letters and Science and the Department of Community Health Sciences of the UCLA School of Public Health.

Professor Kagawa-Singer has developed a national and international reputation through her work in oncology for over 30 years. Her research focuses on the disparities in physical and mental health-care outcomes of ethnic minority populations, primarily Asian American/Pacific Islanders with chronic illnesses such as cancer. Her present research investigates the influence of ethnicity on health-care decisions, access, and utilization of care, and she seeks to develop standards of cultural competence in health care practice and policy to improve the health status of all ethnic groups who suffer a disproprotionate burden of disease.

Professor Kagawa-Singer is the Director of the Concurrent MA Degree Program in Community Health Sciences and Asian American Studies and the Principal Investigator at the UCLA Minority Training Program for Cancer Control Research. She is also the Co-Director of the UCLA EXPORT Center for Education, Research and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities. She serves on multiple local, state, and national committees involved with issues of ethnicity and health care.

Kagawa-Singer's current cancer related research includes intervention studies to promote mammography in 11 different Asian American and Pacific Islander groups: Hmong, Thai, Cambodian, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Filipino, Vietnamese, Laotian, Chamorro, Guamanin, and Chinese women in six sites across the U.S. Also underway is a study of the quality of life of elderly women following breast cancer, and a study to develop a spirituality scale for elderly with chronic conditions. She participates as co-PI on several other studies related to her expertise in cross cultural health.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Professor Kagawa-Singer has a master's degree in nursing from the UCLA School of Nursing, and master's and doctorate degrees in Anthropology from UCLA. She serves on multiple local, state and national committees involved with issues of ethnicity and health care, and has published, lectured, and taught extensively on issues in cross cultural health-care, cancer, pain, grief and bereavement, end-of-life decision making, and quality of life. She also serves as consultant to the American Cancer Society and other community groups that are working to bring cancer education and services to under-served populations.