Outstanding Community Mental Health Leader
Dr. Jeanelle Sugimoto-Matsuda has provided leadership and support in a number of community task forces, research projects and policy initiatives on suicide prevention and mental health. As an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, she built thriving partnerships on each island that continue today as she leads the Prevent Suicide Hawaii Task Force. She exemplifies skills as a community-based researcher by working carefully and persistently to establish and maintain trusting relationships with community members and leaders, facilitating the implementation of suicide prevention programs and working closely with each site to develop suicide prevention action plans.