Samuel Lin M.D., Ph.D., M.S., M.P.A.
Rear Admiral and US Assistant Surgeon General (Ret), USPHS
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, USDHHS

Often called the father of the Asian Pacific Islander health movement in the U.S., Samuel Lin received his M.D. and his Ph.D. degrees from the Oregon Health and Sciences University and is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology were from Seattle Pacific College and Oregon State University, respectively, an M.P.A. from Troy State University, and is currently enrolled in a M.B.A. degree program at Johns Hopkins University.

He began his professional career as a Commissioned Officer in the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and progressed in rank from Ensign to Rear Admiral in nine years. As a Public Health Service (PHS) Scholarship recipient, he served as a general medical officer in the then PHS Hospital system and in the Indian Health Service (IHS) on the Colville Indian Reservation, State of Washington. Subsequently, he headed the IHS Physician Branch and then the Office for Europe in the PHS Office of International Health.

He was appointed DHHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (Intergovernmental Affairs) in 1981 and served in that capacity under three Assistant Secretaries for Health until 1992. During this same period, he also served as Acting Director of the then National Center for Health Services Research (now Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and as Acting Director of the Office of Minority Health. He received an exceptional capability promotion to Captain (0-6) in 1981 and was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1982. From 1992 until his retirement from Federal service in 1994, he served as Acting DHHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and then as Senior Advisor to the DHHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Health with emphasis on Asian, Pacific and US-Mexico Border health issues.

While in Federal service, he co-founded several organizations including the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations and the Asian Pacific Nurses Association, and advised the Asians and Pacific Islanders for Reproductive Health and the Asian American and Pacific Islander Journal of Health. He has served, or currently serves, on boards of numerous civic and service organizations, and has been honored in the Federal, State and private sectors including awards such as the 1998 Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chief Gold Medal of Merit and the institution of the USPHS Samuel Lin Award. He is also a member of the APAMSA Physician Advisory Board.

Upon retirement from Federal service, he joined the former Upjohn Company as Executive Director for Federal Medical Affairs, retiring from the Company in 1999. Currently, he serves as a private health consultant for several domestic and global healthcare ventures.

Dr. Lin was born in 1945 in Shanghai. He and his spouse, Eva Louise Hester, a clinical psychiatric nurse practitioner at the National Institutes of Health, are the parents of triplet daughters who are 27 years old and in graduate studies in romance languages, veterinary medicine and international affairs. Dr. Lin is also a self-avowed country and western music aficionado.

Arthur Chen, MD
Medical Director, Alameda Alliance for Health
Chair, Board of Directors, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum

Dr. Arthur Chen currently serves as the Medical Director of the Alameda Alliance for Health, a Local Initiative, Medi-Cal Managed Care public organization serving 90,000 low income residents of Alameda County. From 1996-2001 he was the Health Officer for Alameda County.

Since 1983 he has practiced clinical medicine as a family physician at Asian Health Services (a community health center) in Oakland, California where he also served as Medical Director and Special Programs Director. Prior to that, he served as an emergency room physician and the Associate Medical Director of the Institute of Emergency Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. He was also the Executive Director of the Chinatown Health Clinic in New York City.

He completed his postgraduate training at the Residency Program in Social Medicine (Family Practice) at the Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. He received his B.S. and medical degrees from the University of California at Davis.

He was appointed to the Board of Directors of The California Endowment in April, 2003. He chairs the Board of Directors of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a national policy and advocacy organization whose mission is to improve the health status of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. From 2001-2003 he was appointed to the Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists for the CA Dept of Consumer Affairs, and has advised numerous other state and local public health entities. He has also served on advisory and planning committees to the Bureau of Primary Health Care of the U.S. Public Health Service, the Office of Minority Health, the National Institutes of Health and the American Lung Association. He has also testified before Congress and President Clinton's Health Task Force.

Among his publications are: "Health is strength": a research collaboration involving Korean Americans in Alameda County; A behavioral risk factor survey on Korean Americans; Community-Sensitive Research, Information Management For the 90's; "Special Health Problems of Asians and Pacific Islanders," "Behavioral Risk Factor Survey of Chinese in California," "Cigarette Smoking Among Chinese, Vietnamese and Hispanics in California," and "Conducting a Culturally-sensitive Health Survey in the Chinese Community."