In 2013, Palau became the seventh and most recent location to join the Pacific STEP-UP Program. Dr. Chris Kitalong is Palau’s local program coordinator that can help students with the program. The students who are accepted into the program will work with a trained research mentor at the STEP-UP training lab located in Palau Community College.
LOCAL PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Dr. Christopher Kitalong
Palau Community College
Dr. Kitalong is a Palauan-American resident of Palau who has focused most of his work on the Pharmacology of Palauan traditional plant medicines. His work begins with identification of important plant species, then looks at origin and distribution of these plants, and then culminates in phytochemical, pharmacological, and clinical assessment of these plant medicines. Dr. Kitalong received his BS in Science-Business from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana as well as his MS in Pharmacology from Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Japan and his PhD in Biology from The Graduate Center, CUNY in New York. He has been supporting the STEP-UP Program in Palau since 2014.
