Kelsie Okamura, PhD (she/her) is an Instructor of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine Center for Mental Health, a licensed psychologist, and board certified in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Dr. Okamura is passionate about community-based public-sector service system implementation, particularly knowledge formation within systems, quality improvement initiatives that bridge team-based technology, and youth participatory action research. She is currently funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has received funding through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Institute for General Medical Services, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and American Psychological Foundation.
As a fourth-generation daughter of Japanese and Okinawan immigrants to Hawaii, Dr. Okamura has a deep appreciation for understanding diversity, culture, and contexts as they apply to youth mental health implementation. Growing up in a rural town in O’ahu, Hawaii has afforded her insight into the complexities of socioeconomic and cultural barriers that may impede successful implementation of youth psychosocial interventions. She earned her PhD from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and completed her predoctoral internship at I Ola Lāhui Rural Hawaii Behavioral Health, and postdoc at Penn’s Center for Mental Health. She was an NIMH Child Intervention, Prevention and Services (CHIPS) and Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH) Fellow.