Inspire 2024 ANNUAL DONOR REPORT
Straub Benioff: Pledge for the Future
Dr. Clarissa Burkert and Dr. Ken Robbins at the Straub Benioff Medical Center groundbreaking ceremony in May 2024.
Sometimes, a job becomes more than a job. It becomes a calling, a lifelong mission.
Dr. Ken Robbins and his wife, Dr. Clarissa Burkert, may have retired as full-time physicians, but their impact on Hawaii’s health care is far from over.
The physician couple is making a $1 million pledge to support Hawaii Pacific Health’s largest project ever — creating a health care campus of the future at Straub Benioff Medical Center.
The story behind their gift goes back decades.
Both had long careers at the medical center. Dr. Burkert worked in the Occupational Medicine Department for 15 years. Dr. Robbins was a pediatrician for 20 years before moving into a leadership role for the entire organization as HPH’s chief medical officer. In 2020, he transitioned to an advisory role for HPH and continues to serve in that capacity to this day.
Their connection to Straub Benioff and HPH is also personal. Both Dr. Burkert and Dr. Robbins go there for their own health care. Dr. Burkert’s parents were lifelong patients there. And when their two sons were born prematurely, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children cared for them.
“My heart and soul are with Hawaii Pacific Health,” Dr. Robbins said. “It’s where I have enjoyed an extraordinary 40-year career, for which I am truly grateful. I am also thankful for the excellent care my family and I have received.”
The couple’s donation will help build a new conference center at Straub Benioff where health care professionals can teach, learn and collaborate on patient care.
“This new campus will provide an excellent teaching facility for students and health care providers, and a space for engaging the community in better health,” Dr. Burkert said.
The couple remembers when the vision of redeveloping the campus on South King Street was in its infancy some 20 years ago. Now with construction well underway, they’re excited to see that vision becoming a reality.
“Hawaii Pacific Health is creating a world-class facility to match the world-class health care that Straub Benioff Medical Center already provides,” Dr. Robbins said. “We are very proud to be a part of this next chapter.”