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Zach Drury (left) shares a song and a smile with local children during a visit in Southeast Asia.
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Zach Drury teaching first aid to a classroom of students in the Philippines.
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Zach Drury played bass guitar in the Navy band that traveled across Southeast Asia.
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Zach Drury (kneeling) in a courtyard alive with music and moments of connection that transcend borders.
HPU alumnus Zach Drury '15 found his bliss in the Navy, winding through the streets of Cambodia, where the air shimmered with smoke from grilled meats and fish over charcoal and the distinctive tang of prahok rose from street stalls. Mangos, jackfruit, and longan spilled across the wooden tables of open-air markets. Drury walked across dampened soil from fresh rain, the scent of burning wood in the breeze. Jasmine and sandalwood drifted from home altars tucked under eaves. It was there, on humanitarian missions with the Navy and his wife, that something stirred, a recognition of a life rooted in culture, service, and human connection. A life he wanted to live more fully.
Zach Drury (left) with Navy bandmate, celebrating music and connection in Southeast Asia.
Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Drury joined the Navy as a professional bass guitarist. His job was to travel, to represent the United States through music and goodwill across the Southeast Asia. “Cambodia was our favorite,” he said. “The people were so friendly. Everyone we met on our tours was just remarkable.” Alongside his wife, a Navy saxophonist, they played city after city, building bridges note by note.
But in the quieter moments aboard the ship, he found himself watching the nurses with a closetful eye. “I remember how they connected with people,” Drury said. “The trust. The impact. That’s what made me start thinking about healthcare.”
That instinct, once sparked, took root quickly. When the Navy brought the couple to Hawai‘i, Drury enrolled at HPU. “The thing that led me to HPU was how military friendly they are,” he said. “They accepted credits from my military experience, and the advisors took time to walk me through the nursing program. It felt possible. It felt like someone was saying, ‘Yes! You can do this.’ Everything felt possible.”
Drury started his studies at HPU’s military campus before transitioning to in-person classes. The class sizes are small and the faculty are approachable, he remembered. “You weren’t just a number, you were part of a team,” he said. Drury thrived in the new environment, surrounded by like-minded students committed to the same mission of growth, care, and community. Study groups became friendships. “We had ‘Koko Head Fridays,’” he said. “We’d hike together in the morning. You built relationships in and out of the classroom.”
That deep sense of belonging and shared purpose shaped Drury’s nursing education.
“I loved the nursing program at HPU,” he said. “It felt like everyone was in it together. The faculty did a great job building that culture.” His professors also helped him tailor his studies toward his growing passion for critical care, securing clinical placements at Queen’s Medical Center and Kuakini Medical Center. “I loved Kuakini,” he said. “We learned how to do daily care, how to connect with patients and support them in real, meaningful ways.”
Zach Drury recently took part in Kidney Week, hosted by the National Kidney Foundation, where he shared clinical research on a rare genetic kidney condition.
During his time at HPU, the state lacked a unified Student Nurses Association. The University brought together students and faculty from across Hawai‘i to create one, an initiative Drury was part of. He credits Dean Edna Magpantay-Monroe, Ed.D., APRN, CMDCP, who volunteered as a faculty advisor, as a key influence. “I’ve known Dean Edna for over 12 years now,” he said. “Her knowledge and leadership, she’s been an anchor for so many of us.”
Drury earned his BSN from HPU in 2015, then returned to Utah where he worked in the surgical oncology ICU while completing his Doctor of Nursing Practice at the University of Utah. Today, he serves as the lead nurse practitioner for the division of nephrology, managing the division’s ultrasound program, performing renal biopsies, and continuing to work in critical care. But perhaps most meaningfully: he now teaches.
As an educator at the University of Utah, Drury brings the same sense of purpose he found at HPU into his own classroom.
“I wanted to give back what I was given,” he said. “I had professors at HPU who saw where I wanted to go and helped me get there. Now I try to be that person for my students. Not just teaching skills but showing them what kind of nurse they can become.”
Teaching, for Drury, isn’t a sideline, but a calling. “In healthcare, we pass knowledge forward. It’s how the profession gets better,” he said. “And when I teach, I’m always thinking back to HPU—how they taught us to see patients not as tasks, but as people. That’s what I want my students to carry with them.”
Drury has built a life of balance, between the clinical and the personal, between the hospital and the hiking trail. “Perfect happiness to me is simply being outside, being with the people you love. That’s the good life.” In many ways, Utah reminds him of Hawai‘i: the mountains, the community, the rhythm of a life lived outdoors.
When he thinks back to where it all shifted, from music to medicine, from travel to transformation, it was on those walks through the rain-slicked streets of Cambodia. And later, in the classrooms and clinics of HPU. This is where Drury found his path, and where he learned how to help others find their roads to discovery.
