Associate Specialist
mphil@hawaii.edu | (808) 956-5756 | Biomed C-105C
Academic Degrees
- PhD (Educational Psychology and Educational Technology), Michigan State University
- BS (Psychology), University of Nebraska – Omaha
Dr. Michael Phillips is a research psychologist and motivation researcher. He is broadly interested in how motivational approaches can be used to promote health behavior change, as well as how data can inform and guide these strategies. He leads the Motivation for Change (m4c) Research Group in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his research focuses on substance use prevention and intervention. Dr. Phillips’ work spans overdose surveillance, behavioral epidemiology, health disparities in substance use and overdose, real-time data collection, and the development of mHealth and Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAI) for young adults targeting cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine use. He is committed to bridging research and practice by helping providers make data-informed decisions in their communities. Over his career, he has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on a number of federally and state-funded grants in health and education.
He serves as the principal investigator for the Overdose Data to Action in States (OD2AS, CDC-funded) and State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup (SEOW, SAMHSA-funded), both funded through the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division (ADAD) of the Hawaiʻi Department of Health. In addition, he previously served as a co-investigator on a Department of Health project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which addressed health equity issues related to COVID-19. He is also a co-investigator on two NIH-funded grants focused on developing mobile health (mHealth) interventions for young adults in Hawaiʻi, one targeting cannabis and alcohol co-use, and the other addressing nicotine vaping and cannabis co-use, both delivered via smartphone.
https://manoa.hawaii.edu/motivation4change/
Research Interests
- Motivational Science
- Substance Use Prevention and Intervention
- mHealth and Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs)
- Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)
- Surveillance and Behavioral Epidemiology
- Health Disparities in Substance Use
- Data-Informed Decision Making
- Technology Rich Learning Environments
