Co-Principal Investigators

Seunghye Hong, PhD, MA

Dr. Seunghye Hong is an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, Department of Social Work. Her research focuses on social, cultural, and developmental contexts and the associations with health and behavioral mental health outcomes including substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders and the healthcare and health services use among racial and ethnic minorities. She has extensive experience in quantitative research methods and evaluations and data analytics. She is serving as Principal Investigator for the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) Care Coordination & Capacity Building (C3) project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH), Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) and for the Hawaiʻi Behavioral Health Training Institute (HBHTI) project, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She earned her M.A. and B.A. in Social Work from the Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea, and her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. She enjoys a hike in her spare time and loves exploring food on the island.

Paula Toki Tanemura Araullo Morelli, MSW, Ph.D.

Is a third-generation descendant of Filipino/Spanish and Japanese immigrant-settlers, was born in Chicago, Ill. and raised in Molokaʽi and ʽOahu.  Her parents’ incarceration during WWII at Heart Mt. Wyoming concentration camp for Japanese Americans, experiences as a woman of color, and work with Indigenous and minority communities formed the basis of a life-long commitment to social justice. Relationships with family and friends, meditation, art, growing food, cooking, and swimming are essential to her balance.  In 2016, Paula retired from the University of Hawaiʽi, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work (1996-2016), and became the Hawai`i program director at Consuelo Foundation (2016-2020).  Currently, she is an independent research consultant, contracted by the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaiʽi (RCUH) to work on the Overdose to Action (OD2A) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant.