Jeanelle Sugimoto-Matsuda, DrPH, MS, is an Associate Professor at the Office of Public Health Studies, in the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, at the University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa (UHM). She is also adjunct faculty with the Department of Psychiatry, in the John A. Burns School of Medicine at UHM. Dr. Sugimoto-Matsuda received her Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) in Community Based Translational Research from UHM, and concurrently completed a Certificate in Public Policy Studies. She was inducted into the Gamma Chapter of Delta Omega at UHM upon graduation in 2013, and became Chapter President in 2019.
Dr. Sugimoto-Matsuda‘s research interests focus on mental and behavioral health, including suicide prevention, bullying and violence prevention, and health policy/advocacy and systems-building. She is part of the Steering (Leadership) Committee of the Prevent Suicide Hawaiʻi Taskforce, the State’s network of agencies and community members leading suicide prevention, intervention, and post-vention work. She is also a Board Member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Hawaiʻi Chapter. Dr. Sugimoto-Matsuda is currently Principal Investigator of the Hawaii’s Caring Systems Initiative to Prevent Youth Suicide (funded through SAMHSA’s GLS Program), and also Director of Hawaii’s Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training network.