Marife C. Aczon-Armstrong, PhD, MS, RN
Dr. Aczon-Armstrong was appointed as a Community Executive for the Aloha United Way in 2005 where she learned leadership in bringing people together to create a healthier, more compassionate community. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Her expertise in case management/utilization management, counseling, mental health, healthcare insurance, diabetes education, medical/surgical/oncology nursing are materialized with every aspect of her career in nursing. In 2003, Dr. Aczon-Armstrong was an Advisory Committee Panel member for the Domestic Violence Hotline’s Pilipina Advocacy Project serving the Filipinos in Hawaii. She represented the case management experts as a panel member during the 2001 Muscular Dystrophy Association of Hawaii Conference.
In 2008, Dr. Aczon-Armstrong was selected as a new fellow for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Association’s (SAMHSA) Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) at American Nurses Association (ANA). She was a nurse scholar research mentee during the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurses Association’s (NCEMNA) 5th National Conference, “Creating Research Career: Leading The Way” in March 2009 held in Albuquerque, NM. In May 2009, Dr. Aczon-Armstrong was awarded the first Filipino Nurses of Hawaii (FNOH) Excellence in Nursing Research Award at Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Dr. Aczon-Armstrong is a lifetime member of the National Honor Society for Graduate Psychology (PSI CHI), American Nurses Association (ANA) the International Honor Society for Nurses (Sigma Theta Tau and Gamma-PSI-at-Large), Asian American Pacific Islander Nurses Association (AAPINA), Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA), Philippine Nurses Association of Hawaii (PNAH), and Filipino Nurses Organization of Hawaii (FNOH). She is a past member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association of Hawaii (APNAH).
Education
PhD, University of Hawaii at Manoa
MS Nursing, University of Hawaii at Manoa
MS Counseling Psychology, Chaminade University of Honolulu
BS Nursing, Hawaii Pacific University
LPN, Kapiolani Community College
Clinical Practice
Adult Health, Case Management/Utilization Management, Medical/Surgical/Oncology, Diabetes
Teaching Focus or Educational Interest
Adult Health Nursing II, Applied Therapeutic Communication, Health Promotion Across the Lifespan, Community Health Nursing, Nursing Administration, Mental Health, Case Management/Utilization Management
Research Focus
Diabetes, Mental Health, Chronic Illness in Asian American/Pacific Islanders, End-of-life