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Dr. Caroline Chang did not step away from medicine without a fight.
Even as she underwent chemotherapy for an aggressive form of breast cancer, the care she provided never waned. Chang continued mentoring medical students, supporting colleagues, and checking in on pediatricians across Hawaiʻi. The week she died, she was still trying to see patients.
“She just didn’t want to give it up,” said Dr. Jennifer Loh, Chang’s sister-in-law and longtime colleague. “Medicine brought her a lot of joy and a lot of purpose in her life.”
Chang, who served as Chief of Pediatrics for Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi, passed away at age 43 after an 18-month battle with stage four breast cancer. She leaves behind her husband, three young children, and a medical community that continues to feel the depth of her absence.
To honor her life and commitment to pediatrics, Chang’s family has established the Dr. Caroline Chang Memorial Endowed Scholarship. The fund will support JABSOM medical students who demonstrate an interest in pediatrics and embody the qualities that defined her career.
Caroline’s connection to JABSOM was rooted in mentorship. As she grew into leadership at Kaiser Permanente, she consistently welcomed students into clinical spaces, often stepping in to teach when others could not.
“She just really loved mentoring medical students,” Loh, who is also Chief of Endocrinology at Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi, said. “She wanted to help grow people who might be interested in pediatrics.”
The scholarship aims to ease financial barriers for students considering the specialty.
“Pediatricians are one of the lowest paid specialties, so there may be a financial barrier for students, who already are investing a significant amount into their medical school tuition to pick it as a specialty,” Loh said. “So the scholarship is to really give a little support to someone who's shown an interest in pediatrics and hope to inspire them and other folks with the qualities that Caroline had.”
At her core, Loh says Caroline’s qualities were brilliance and steadiness.
“She was incredibly bright and hardworking,” she said. “But what made her stand out was that calm, can-do attitude. No drama. You could bring her a problem, and she’d say, ‘We’ll figure it out. We’ll get it done.’”
Even during treatment, Chang continued flying to neighbor islands to check on pediatric teams in person, rather than over Zoom.
“She was very grounded. Very giving. A true team player,” Loh said. “People loved her for that.”
For Loh and her brother Jeff, who met Caroline as sophomores at MIT, the endowment ensures that Chang’s children will one day understand not only who their mother was at home, but who she was in medicine.
“I wanted her to be remembered,” Loh said. “I want her kids to know her as a physician as well as their mom. Pediatric care meant so much to her. We hope that through the endowment, Caroline’s legacy will live on in the students she inspired, the future pediatricians she will help shape, and in the children they will one day care for.”
Support the Dr. Caroline Chang Memorial Endowed Scholarship here.