The educational legacy of Dr. Colette V. Browne with the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work is reflected in her longevity of excellence in teaching, research and service. Dr. Browne retired on December 31, 2019, and is in a select group of social work educators at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa who have invested over 35 years to education. Her work will forever enrich the profession and the social work ‘ohana because of its prodigious focus on improving lives through practice, policy and research.
Highlights of her accomplishments include her steadfast commitment to gerontology earning her numerous awards and international, national, and island-wide recognition; her stalwart dedication to policy as evidenced by her US Presidential and Hawai‘i gubernatorial appointments to federal and state initiatives, and most recently, her work as the inaugural holder of the Takasaki Endowed Professorship; and her research acumen as indicated in her role as co-founder and Principal Investigator of social work's longest lasting federal grant — Hā Kūpuna — National Resource Center for Native Hawaiian Elders.
In her role as teacher, she has a reputation of being a gifted mentor and teacher to students, generously extending herself fully to empower their success. For these efforts, she earned the UH Board of Regents Medal for Teaching Excellence. In her role as a scholar, she contributes significantly to knowledge that improves the lives of elders, women, and the community-at-large. In her service to the community, she has invested selfless hours to develop and reinforce social work and public health services for our state, nation, and world. Recognition of her service contributions earned her the UH Robert Clopton Award for Exemplary Community Service and the Na Lima Kōkua Award from the Hawai‘i Pacific Gerontological Society.
With a lifetime full of accomplishments, Dr. Browne has inspired a new generation of social workers to reach for a vision of social justice and health equity for our global community. We offer her our deepest aloha and gratitude for the kuleana she has assumed as a leader in the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work.
He pua no ka wēkiu. (A blossom on the topmost branch). (Pukui, p. 99, 1983).