Rita Ng (; born 1978) from
Tracy, California
Tracy is the second most populated city in San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County, California, United States. The population was 93,000 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Tracy is located inside a geographic triangle form ...
is an American
beauty pageant
A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...
titleholder who was crowned
Miss California 2000
Miss (pronounced ) is an English language honorific typically used for a girl, for an unmarried woman (when not using another title such as "Doctor" or "Dame"), or for a married woman retaining her maiden name. Originating in the 17th century, it ...
and is currently a practicing cardiologist. Ng was the first person of Asian descent to be crowned Miss California.
Ng won a preliminary talent award as a concert pianist and placed second runner up at
Miss America 2001. She received over $50,000 in scholarships by competing in the
Miss America
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...
Organization.
As
Miss California
The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition.
The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the Mi ...
, she traveled to the French Riviera and Africa to promote children's health and welfare.
Education
Ng graduated as Valedictorian of Tracy High School in 1996. She was captain of the varsity tennis team,
International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...
Diploma recipient, and class president for four years.
Ng completed her undergraduate studies at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, where she graduated
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
with a 3.99 GPA, earning a degree in Human Biology with Honors. She was awarded the Stanford Dinkelspiel Award, which recognizes two outstanding graduating seniors for their commitment to improving student life and education. Ng's interest in international health began at Stanford where her thesis work focused on health care access in third world countries for which she was awarded the prestigious Firestone Medal given to the top undergraduate honors thesis and her research work has been published in multiple scientific journals.
She earned her medical degree from the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
at
San Francisco Medical School, Internal Medicine Residency at UCSF, and cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Ng further received the distinction of being named Miss California and was second runner-up at the Miss America Pageant in 2001.
Career
Ng served at the
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...
Heart Institute in
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...
as Chief Fellow in
Cardiovascular Medicine
Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular hear ...
. She was named the Elliot Corday "Outstanding Fellow of the Year". Dr. Ng is the Chief of Cardiology for Kaiser Permanente East Bay, assistant clinical professor of medicine for UCSF, and serves on The Permanente Medical Group Board of Directors - the largest physician group in the country. She has received numerous medical teaching awards. She has served on the prestigious judges panel for the Miss California Pageant and the Miss Alabama Pageant.
In 2011, Ng started working in the Cardiology Department at Kaiser Permanente in
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council. .
Awards
In addition to winning the National Talent Award and the Top Interview award, she was the first Asian-American Miss California in the 80-year history of the pageant. Ng has received numerous national and international accolades - California's Youth Volunteer of the Year, USA Today Newspaper named her to the "First All-American Academic Team," Glamour Magazine featured her as one of the "Top 10 College Women in America," and the Chinese World Journal named her as one of the "Ten Most Influential Asian-Americans" of the year. She has appeared in Time Magazine, Glamour Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, US Weekly, and many others and was the featured model for Procter & Gamble Global Beauty Campaign including Covergirl, Max Factor, and Oil of Olay cosmetics. She serves on numerous boards and foundations such as the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation National Selection Committee and the Boys and Girls Club Organization. As chairwoman for many philanthropic organizations and a gifted pianist, Ng has traveled extensively around the nation and world giving keynote addresses and piano concerts, helping to raise millions of dollars for her causes around the nation and world.
Personal life
On July 6, 2013, Dr. Ng married Carson Taylor Lawall, a Neurologist and fellow graduate of UCSF School of Medicine.
They have two sons Logan and Lucas.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ng, Rita
1978 births
Living people
People from Tracy, California
American people of Chinese descent
Miss America 2001 delegates
Miss America Preliminary Talent winners
American cardiologists
Women cardiologists
American women physicians
Stanford University alumni
University of California, San Francisco alumni