Margaret was born in Washington DC and grew up on the East Coast where her parents relocated to facilitate their release from Manzanar internment camp during WWII. She attended Brandeis University then Milton S. Hershey Medical Center/Pennsylvania State University. Margaret’s family practice residency was at UCLA.

As a resident she connected with the Puyallup Tribe in 1980 through AMA’s Project USA. Margaret worked two years with the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority with active privileges at six acute care hospitals.

Margaret worked the next 20 years at the small rural Ka’u Hospital on Big Island Hawaii. Kiko and her raised their two sons there.

A number of locum tenens jobs in Hawaii, Washington, and California followed as well as 5 months at the Standing Rock Reservation ND in 2003.

Margaret returned to PTHA and completed another 15 years until retiring from fulltime practice in 2018.

Her passion is to push for access to quality healthcare in underserved communities in the primary care setting - cradle to grave. She hopes her medical background and life experiences will enable her to contribute as a Board Member to the breadth of vital services offered by Tahoma Indian Center.