Almost ten years after its founding, the Native Hawaiian Mental Health Research Development Program (NHMHRDP) is arguably the University of Hawaii’s most successful attempt at attaining academic parity for doctoral-level professors of Native Hawaiian ancestry. By July 1, 2000, seven Native Hawaiian professors of psychiatry will have become scholars and researchers within the NHMRHRDP. During the same period of time, the mental health research conducted within the NHMHRDP produced landmark knowledge on the psychiatric epidemiology of Native Hawaiians, Hawaii’s most at-risk major ethnic population. Data from this research effort are being published and used by public and private policy makers to shape services in clinical and educational institutions. To meet our mission and attain our goals, the researchers and staff of the NHMHRDP have developed and pursued three strategies: 1) create a model to achieve academic diversity; 2) establish psychiatric epidemiology as the core research approach; and 3) build the research infrastructure and expertise, within the Department of Psychiatry, to establish a nationally recognized minority mental health research center. The purpose of our Web site is to review the activities and progress of the NHMHRDP from its founding in 1990, to the present day, and to provide a mechanism to distribute information that we are discovering about Native Hawaiians and their mental health needs. In addition, we hope this Web Page will serve as a forum to establish meaningful dialog and networking between researchers, scholars, policy makers, consumers, and other interested citizens about Native Hawaiian mental health. Me Ke Aloha Pumehana, Naleen Naupaka Andrade, M.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry Director and Principal Investigator Native Hawaiian Mental Health Research Development Program