Project Investigator Biography

Hellen Whippy,Ph. D. University of Guam Mangilao, Guam 96923 phone: (671) 735-2994 fax: (671) 734-2290 email: hwhippy@uog.edu

Dr. Helen J.D. Whippy is the senior vice president for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Guam. She is also a tenured Associate Professor of Mathematics and Chief Academic Officer, Chief Student Affairs Officer and the WASC Accreditation Liaison Officer for the University. She has also served as the Interim President at University of Guam and UOG Academic Vice President. In addition, she is the co-Principal Investigator of an NIH partnership planning grant (U-56) with the University of Hawaii Cancer Research Center to build capacity in cancer research and health disparities research at the University of Guam.

Since 2003, Dr. Whippy has managed the U-56 Cancer Research Center partnership, the only one between two minority-serving institutions, the University of Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian serving institution and the University of Guam, a Pacific Islander serving institution. In this capacity, she has oversight of all the academic and student aspects of the University, as well as the University of Guam Cancer Research Center and all research institutes. Her latest publication is co-authored with the University sponsored Guam Cancer Registry staff, “Ethnic disparities in cancer mortality among residents of Guam.” Professionally, she is a mathematician, and is involved in changing the climate for research on the University campus.

Dr. Helen Whippy received her BA from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, MA from the University of Arizona, Tucson and her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During the 1970's, she was a lecturer in Mathematics at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji Islands. Following this, she became the Departmental Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea and a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics. She came to the University of Guam from Papua New Guinea in 1988.