Associate Professor

jsugimot@hawaii.edu | (808) 956-5695 | Biomed C-105CA

Graduate Chair, MPH and MS Programs

Social and Behavioral Health Sciences

Academic Degrees

• DrPH (Community-Based and Translational Research), University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
• MS (Forensic Sciences) Chaminade University
• BS (Biology) University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Courses Taught

• PH 430 – Health Policy & Management (3)
• PH 623 – Introduction to Health Promotion Theory and Methods (3)
• PH 630 – Cultural Competency in Health Care (3)
• PH 672 – Leading Health Programs (3)
• PH 701 – Health Communication (3)
• PH 775 – Public Health Proposal and Dissertation Writing (2)

View Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

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 Co-Chair 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 has extensive experience in systems and policy development, mostly in suicide prevention, including serving as Director of the emergency department/trauma component of the Hawaii’s Caring Communities Initiative for Youth Suicide Prevention (SAMHSA Garrett Lee Smith grantee, 2011-2014).  Dr. Sugimoto-Matsuda is also Principal Investigator of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health’s suicide prevention gatekeeper training initiative.  She and her team coordinate suicide prevention trainings across the State, as well as support and consultation for the State’s trainer network.

Selected Publications

Strong Makaiau, A., Sugimoto-Matsuda, J., Glassco, K., Honda, F., Rehuher, D., Hishinuma, E. S., Kida, L. E., & Mark, G. Y. (2019).  Ethnic Studies now!  Three reasons why Ethnic Studies should be a requirement for high school graduation in the United States.  The Oregon Journal of the Social Studies, 7(1), 20-51.

Guerrero, A. P. S., Chock, S., Lee, K., Sugimoto-Matsuda, J., & O’Kelly, A. S. (2019).  Mental health disparities, mechanisms, and intervention strategies: Perspective from Hawai‛i. Current Opinion in Psychiatry.  doi: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000551 [epub ahead of print]

Hishinuma, E. S., Smith, M. D., McCarthy, K., Lee, M., Goebert, D. A., Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. J., Andrade, N. N., Philip, J. B., Chung-Do, J. J., Hamamoto, R. S., & Andrade, J. K. L.  (2018).  Longitudinal prediction of suicide attempts for a diverse adolescent sample of Native Hawaiians, Pacific Peoples, and Asian Americans.  Archives of Suicide Research, 22, 67-90. doi:10.1080/13811118.2016.1275992

Goebert, D. A., Hamagami, F., Hishinuma, E. S., Chung-Do., J. J., & Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. J. (2018).  Change pathways in indigenous and non-indigenous youth suicide.  Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.  doi: 10.1111/sltb.12420

Goebert, D., Alvarez, A., Andrade, N. N., Balberde-Kamalii, J., Carlton, B. S., Chock, S., Chung-Do, J., Eckert, M. D., Hooper, K., Kaulukukui, R., Kaninau-Santos, K., Kelly, C., Pike M., Rehuher, D., & Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. (2018).  Hope, help, and healing: Culturally embedded approaches to suicide prevention, intervention and postvention services with Native Hawaiian youth.  Psychological Services, 15(3), 332-339.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ser0000227

Goebert, D., & Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. (2017).  Advancing suicide prevention in Hawaiʻi.  Hawaiʻi Journal of Medicine and Public Health, 76(11), 310-313.

Lee, W. K., DeCambra, C. C. D., Mortensen, K. A., Long, L. M., & Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. (2016).  Enhancing student perspectives of humanism in medicine: Reflections from the Kalaupapa Service Learning Project.  BMC Medical Education, 1-9.  doi: 10.1186/s12909-016-0664-7.  PMCID: PMC4862178.

Chung-Do, J. J., Goebert, D. A., Bifulco, K., Sugimoto-Matsuda, J., Balberde-Kamali‛i, J., Ka‛ae, D., Lau Hee, L., & Walter, L. (2016).  Safe messaging for youth-led suicide prevention awareness: Examples from Hawai‛i.  Hawai‛i Journal of Medicine and Public Health, 75(5), 144-147.  PMCID: PMC4872268.

Chung-Do, J. J., Goebert, D. A., Bifulco, K., Tydingco, T., Alvarez, A., Rehuher, D., Sugimoto-Matsuda, J., Arume, B., & Wilcox, P. (2015).  Hawaii’s Caring Communities Initiative: Mobilizing rural and ethnic minority communities for youth suicide prevention.  Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 8(4), 108-123.  Available at: http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol8/iss4/8.

Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. & Rehuher, D. (2014).  Suicide prevention in diverse populations: A systems and readiness approach for emergency settings.  Psychiatric Times, 40G-40H.

Sugimoto-Matsuda, J. J., & Braun, K. L. (2014).  The role of collaboration in facilitating policy change in youth violence prevention: A review of the literature.  Prevention Science, 15(2), 194-204.  doi: 10.1007/s11121-013-0369-7.  PMCID: PMC4704786.