"Dr. Riklon and I are here to plan a center," said Nia Aitaoto, co-director of the Center for Pacific Islander Health, a program of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest in Fayetteville.
"I love the area, the community, the people," Aitaoto said.
Dr. Sheldon Riklon is the Marshallese physician who serves the center.
In her role as co-director, Aitaoto works with the leaders and staff of the health center to create what she called a cultural plan for seven generations in the future -- the way they do it in the Islands.
"If you plant something, you are not going to benefit from it," she said, repeating Island philosophy. "For example, if you plant a tree, you will not see it grow to log size to build a house. But your great-great-grandchildren will rise up and thank you.
"The Pacific Islanders are stewards of the land. They know not to over-fish the oceans. They leave some for the next generation."
Aitaoto was born in Samoa and raised by grandparents who worked as Bible translators all over the Pacific. Her family tree included Samoans, Jews, Hawaiians and Chinese. With her grandparents' lifestyle, Aitaoto said, she "grew up in many different communities.
"And I understand and value each once of them," she said.
Today, Aitaoto's position ensures travel in her Pacific home, as the the local health center extends its focus worldwide.
"I left a job, but I didn't leave the community. I haven't forgotten about the people," Aitaoto said.
PUBLIC HEALTH
After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Aitaoto returned to the islands where she was raised to work with the people.
"Public health was not in my plans, she said. "I didn't even think about that."
Then, she learned about the flu epidemic that hit her beloved Pacific Islands in 1918, killing 22 percent of the population in Samoa. "That's a lot in close-knit communities," Aitaoto said.
Grieving families had no time to carry out traditional ceremonies for their loved ones, history remembers. Bodies were wrapped in mats and collected by trucks for burial in mass graves.
It was the pictures that got her. "I decided I needed to go into public health."
Aitaoto returned to the University of Hawaii-Manoa for a master's degree in epidemiology and public health, then went to the University of Iowa for a doctorate in community and behavioral health.
In addition to research, Aitaoto served as an adviser to the national Association of Chronic Disease Directors and developed curriculum and taught for the World Health Organization's Pacific Open Learning Health Network.
The way New Zealand, then in control of Samoa, handled the outbreak of the flu led to the public health field, Aitaoto explained.
"There were consistencies in the ways in which the country responded to the crisis," the country's website reads. "Central committees were established to coordinate relief efforts, and areas were divided into blocks or districts, each with its own 'depot or bureau'. Many public facilities and businesses closed, and public events and gatherings were postponed. With the medical workforce already stretched due to the war, volunteers had to fill the gaps, whether in their own household or in their local community."
"Public health plays a vital role in everybody's life. Public health is prevention," Aitaoto explained. "Public health makes sure you don't go to the hospital.
"There are so many things we can teach the general public to help them stay healthy" -- nutrition, gardening, using the trails, immunizations, prevention, she said.
"It all links back to the flu," she said. "You make a different choice. You know it's highly contagious, but you wash your hands, isolate the patient and stay outside of the room."
She gives the same lesson to the local Marshallese with diabetes. "Your hemoglobin is so high, you had to go to the hospital," she said. "But this could have been controlled. This could have been prevented."
ENCOURAGEMENT AND PASSION
Pearl McElfish is the other half of that directorial team for the Center for Pacific Islander Health. She met Aitaoto as she researched the family model of treating diabetes to help Northwest Arkansas' Pacific Islanders and brought her to Northwest Arkansas.
McElfish said she hopes Aitaoto can use her nearly 40 years of experience working in the Pacific Islands to share her expertise with the medical staff of the center, build a community of health research in Arkansas and mentor the staff trained to conduct research with their fellow Islanders.
"With the staff, she encourages them in a way I can not," McElfish said. "She tells them, that with great opportunity comes great responsibility. She lets them know it's not just data collection, it's contributing to our education and training."
Additionally, Aitaoto began working with the faith-based Marshallese community in Northwest Arkansas, assisting them in providing much better input from their communities and so everyone can understand the research.
"She's empowering and training pastors to take a leading role in the research -- including how to pull their seat up to the table," McElfish said. "She's been a strong part of helping them understand the validity of their voice."
"[Aitaoto] is an incredible woman," said Anita Iban, a Marshallese community liaison for Springdale Public Schools, who also has lent her skills to the health center. "She's not just helping the Marshallese, but she goes back and forth to different Pacific Islands."
"Nia is straightforward, which is good for all Asian Pacific Islanders," said Albius Latior, who also has worked with the North Street Clinic as an interpreter. "She makes us think we can do anything, and says she'll stand beside us.
"She's always giving encouragement and advice. She's always saying, 'You can do that. You can do that.'"
"I've told my friends and colleagues to never be afraid to challenge me and challenge each other with what's right for the community," McElfish said. "[Aitaoto's] heart is always directed at what is best for the the community -- not her or her career. She is truly motivated by helping her people. She has an insatiable passion."
NAN Our Town on 02/02/2017