2007 Native American Alumni Hall of Fame Inductee Emmett Chase, Sr. 1952 - Dr. Emmett Chase earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Davis in 1978, a M.D. from Stanford University in 1982 and a Master’s in Public Health from UCLA in 1990—all after graduating from the high school on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation of Northern California, where he was born and raised. Upon completion of his medical degree, Emmett became the first California Indian tribal member to graduate from the Stanford Medical School—and the first California Indian physician in the United States. From the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s Emmett was committed to the issue of AIDS and its impact on Native American people. Serving on numerous task forces and health boards he ultimately coordinated the “HIV Seroprevalence” Research Program—the largest research project that the Indian Health Service has ever undertaken. During his tenure at IHS Headquarters West, Emmett was the first National AIDS Coordinator, representing the Indian Health Service at all AIDS meetings with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Surgeon General and directors of all Federal Health Agencies. In 1986, while still at UCLA he began working with his own Hupa people, serving on the Hoopa Health Board, to pursue funding for a new medical center. Committed to California Indian health care he was the founding CEO of Consolidated Indian Health in Ukiah and the medical director of both the Compton and Los Angeles Indian Clinics, before returning home in 1997. After being away from the Hoopa Valley for 25 years, Emmett became the founding CEO of the new K’ima:w Medical Center—the center he had been planning—which included a health clinic, urgent care facility, dental center, diabetes prevention center, incorporated telemedicine capabilities and specialty clinics. The K’ima:w Medical Center was the first Indian Health organization to receive Joint Commission Accreditation in Humboldt County. Dr. Emmett Chase continues to dedicate himself to the well-being and health of his people, his community and his family in Hoopa.