Kathryn L. Braun, DrPH

kbraun@hawaii.edu

(808) 956-5768

(808) 956-9582

Biomed D-202

Kathryn L. Braun, DrPH

Professor (on leave Spring 2024 semester)

Graduate Chair, PhD Public Health Program

Academic Degrees

  • DrPH (Health Services Evaluation), University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
  • MPH, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
  • BS, University of Michigan

View Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Kathryn L. Braun is Professor of Public Health and Social Work and Graduate Chair of the PhD in Community-Based and Translational Research in the Office of Public Health Studies. She is Principal Investigator of the federally funded Hā Kūpuna National Resource Center for Native Hawaiian Elders with the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health. She also is Co-Investigator on projects with the John A. Burns School of Medicine to improve geriatric care and support translational research to deduce health disparities. 

Dr. Braun’s primary teaching responsibilities are in the doctoral program, teaching courses on systematic literature review, proposal writing, and qualitative methods. She is known for her work in community-based participatory research in cancer and gerontology, and she has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics. She is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. 

Dr. Braun is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in the Philippines (Bontoc) in the 1970s. She also was a Fulbright Scholar in Busan, Korea. She serves as President of the Active Aging Consortium Asia Pacific, an international network of gerontologists in Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. She likes to travel and has visited all 7 continents and more than 120 countries.

Awards & Honors

Regents' Medal for Excellence in Teaching, 1998

Selected Publications

Braun KL, Browne CV, Muneoka S, Terada T, Burrage R, Wu YY, Mokuau N. Migration and resilience in Native Hawaiian elders. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work. 2020:doi: 10.1080/15313204.2020.1770649.

Tomioka M, Braun KL, Wu YY, Holt K, Keele P, Tsuhako L, Yago J. Twelve-month retention in and impact of Enhance®Fitness on older adults in Hawai‘i. Journal of Aging Research. 2019;9836181, https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/9836181.

Butel J, Braun KL, Nigg C, Wilkens L, Leon Guerrero R, Areta R, Coleman P, Bersamin A, Novotny R. Intervention dose and change in screen time in the multilevel, multisite Children's Healthy Living Program. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 2019  doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibz073 epub ahead of print.

Braun KL, Kim BJ, Ka‘opua LS, Browne CV, Mokuau N. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander elders: What gerontologists should know. The Gerontologist. 2015; 55:912-919. doi:10.1093/geront/gnu072. 

Braun KL, Browne C, Kaopua LS, Kim BJ, Mokuau N. Research on Indigenous elders: From positivistic to decolonizing methodologies. The Gerontologist. 2014. 54 (1):117-126. doi:10.1093/geront/gnt06.