Joseph Keaweʻaimoku Kaholokula, Ph.D.Professor and Chair
Phone: (808) 692-1047
Email: kaholoku@hawaii.edu
Dr. Keaweʻaimoku Kaholokula is a Professor and Chair of Native Hawaiian Health in the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He received is Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2003 and completed a clinical health psychology post-doctoral fellowship in 2004 at the Triple Army Medical Center. He is a National Institutes of Health funded investigator whose community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves developing sustainable community- and worksite-based health promotion strategies and programs to address cardiometabolic health inequities experienced by Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. His research also examines how biological, behavioral, and psychosocial factors interplay to affect their risk for, and treatment of, cardiometabolic-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. Among his various studies of Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, he has examined the effects of depression on cigarette smoking and diabetes management; of racism on physiological stress indices, hypertension, and psychological distress; of acculturation on the risk for depression and diabetes; and of community-placed interventions on reducing obesity, hypertension, and diabetes inequities. He is an ambassador for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander health and serves on several community boards and committees whose mission is to address the social and cultural determinants of health in Hawaiʻi. He is also a member of Halemua o Kūali‘i and ʻAha Kāne, Hawaiian cultural groups dedicated to the revitalization of traditional values and practices to build leaders in our Hawaiian communities.
Chessa Harris, M.B.A.Director of Business and Administrative Operations
Phone: (808) 692-1008
Email: chessa@hawaii.edu
As the Associate Chair of Finance & Operations, Chessa provides leadership and strategic decision making in the areas of healthcare and finance administration. She is responsible for formulating business strategies that address the integration of Hawaiian cultural knowledge and wisdom within the medical education, basic and clinical research, clinical services, and community engagement missions of the Department. Chessa currently serves as the Treasurer for the Papa Ola Lokahi Board of Directors and a reviewer on multiple scholarship committees at all levels within the University of Hawaiʻi system. Chessa completed both her undergraduate degree in Communications and Masters of Business Administration at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is originally from Kailua-Kona on Hawaiʻi Island.
Senior Administrator
Phone: (808) 692-1043
Email: loa@hawaii.edu
Celeste is from Waimanalo, HI and has been a part of the JABSOM ʻohana for more than 10 years.