Q. There's an attempt to repeal Hawai'i's smoking ban. Is that a major concern for you.?

A. It's something that we're going to fight. We think the law, which is just about a year old now, is working well. If you go into a place like Ala Moana Shopping Center, you used to walk by Sears and the ATM machines, there was smoke all over. You can go there now and people can breathe. There are some who really want to roll back this law, but we are very dedicated to making it clear that we're going to fight for this.

Q. Will you be pushing for a law to ban smoking in cars?

A. I believe education is really the way to go. Also, I don't want to demonize smokers. The tobacco companies have put in so much higher rates of nicotine that it is a very addicting habit and very difficult to quit. So when people are ready to quit, we're ready to help them. But to criminalize it is pretty bad, I think. Regulating a lot of things tends to have some problems.

Q. Are there other measures that you will be pushing?

A. That's the biggest one. We were lucky to get the tax increase on cigarettes passed the year before last. It goes up 20 cents every year for a few years. We also certainly want to preserve the master settlement agreement, the tobacco money, and make sure that that gets used properly for prevention and other types of programs for smokers and non-smokers alike.

Q. Why did you choose to go into the field of public health?

A. I have been in the health and human services field since 1972, when I got my first degree. I started volunteering at Hawai'i Planned Parenthood, which at the time was at the Palama Settlement. My interest in public health just kind of grew. Those were the kind of jobs that I applied for and did my degree in public health. I really like working at community organizations, nonprofits. I've never worked for a profit organization.

Q. Was it your plan to move into management?

A. That just kind of happened. After I finished at the university with my public health degree, I worked at the Legislature for a term and that was the Ways and Means Committee as a budget analyst and I thought, "I don't want to do that again." So I applied for a position with the American Cancer Society and it really was my first opportunity to supervise. It was the office in Waipahu and there were only two other people, so that was kind of a good way to start. You don't have a lot of employees and you can kind of learn. I enjoyed that and continued moving in that direction.

Q. How did you wind up at the Lung Association?

A. I was working at Alu Like. I ran a very large department there — we had 90 staff — Early Childhood, it was the home-visiting program. The funding was drying out a bit and I'd been there nine years so I was looking around for something else and while I had been a supervisor and a manager and a director for many years, I never actually ran the place. So I thought this might be a good opportunity and I was quite familiar with the American Lung Association of Hawai'i. I had worked in Early Childhood with their asthma coalition and had done a lot of things with them. It was kind of a natural fit.

Q. While working with all of these nonprofits, have you seen any common issues or problems?

A. Funding, of course. That's always an issue. Also, I was the president for three years for the American Public Health Association and we had a lot of people from the Department of Health and from nonprofits, but one of the things that was happening was more and more nonprofits were being formed, so the competition gets keener for the dollars. I'm quite interested in planning, so it's still my goal to try to work with other organizations to share the pieces of the pie. Do what you do best and even though we often times get in the trap of chasing the money and then you kind of modify your program to fit the grant, it really shouldn't be that way. You should do what you do best and let the other group do what they do best and maybe share some of the pie. I do see that that's something that's quite common in nonprofits, especially as they tend to multiply.

Q. Is fundraising one of your primary duties?

A. Yes. We are happy to have Beth-Ann Kozlovich as our director of development. This is a new position for this organization. We're coming up with our "Breathe Concert, Clean Air For Everyone" and that's Jan. 12. We have 25 award-winning local entertainers who've volunteered their time and their talent to make a statement that we want the no-smoking law to continue. Yes, fundraising is a major issue and it's also grant writing as well as other types of fund development. In this type of voluntary health organization, fundraising tends to be a little different than in some places like Alu Like, where they are heavily grant-focused.

Q. Are there other activities that are coming up?

A. We do other programs that aren't necessarily fund-raisers. We have programs in the schools. Hawai'i has the second highest rate of asthma in children in the nation, so we do a lot of programs to help children manage their asthma. We do the "Word of Mouth," which is a prevention program so kids don't start smoking. They learn how to say no and really how to understand what's going on in their bodies. We have smoking cessation programs for adults. We also work with the Hawai'i Thoracic Society, which is our professional arm.

Q. When you got to Hawai'i, did you envision yourself in this leadership position?

A. No. I had no idea. My mother never worked. She did have a college degree, but my father is from the old school and never let her work. But she was involved with some organizations so she was pretty active in the community. I never thought I'd really be the executive director of an organization. Over the years, I said, "OK, I think I can do this." It is a small organization, but what I really like about it is working with staff. I can mentor them so they can grow. What's missing in Hawai'i is really some of the younger people growing into leadership roles. When we baby boomers all decide to retire, I think there's going to be quite a void. There are a lot of people my age out there that I see all the time at the same kind of meetings and we need to see some younger folks.

Q. What are your goals?

A. I want to make sure that we continue our programs in the community and enhance them so that I'd like to see the smoking rates go down. I'd like to make sure that people who do smoke don't smoke around children. Getting the word out. In our Word of Mouth program we had about 4,000 kids in it and we asked them, "Anybody at home smoke?" and 44 percent of them said yes, which is a much higher rate than the Department of Health surveys have shown. Kids are being exposed to secondhand smoke and I think a lot of the people want the best for the children, but I don't think they really understand what smoking can do in a confined area. Children who grow up with parents who do smoke have many more respiratory problems and illnesses and of course it certainly hurts those with asthma. I'd like people to understand that smoking in a car with anybody is really not a safe thing to do.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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