Hoa B. Appel, PhD, MPH, Lecturer, Healthcare Behavioral Health Coordinator

Hoa Appel is currently a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Health Studies and also serves as the Healthcare Behavioral Health Chair. Prior to teaching at UW Bothell, she was a skilled nursing facility  social services director. In addition, she was a disease management care manager for a health plan. Dr. Appel was a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Washington Seattle, in which she examined psychiatric illness and mental health service disparities among Asian Americans and Latinos in the U.S. She is interested in preventive means to attain and maintain mental health, and ways to foster resilience in families across racial and ethnic communities.

Scholarship

As a health services researcher, Dr. Appel’s work focuses on improving the mental health of community members by examining access, prevention, and disparity in mental health care. Other research interests include identifying strategies for effective health care access by integrating behavioral and primary health care, understanding treatment disparities, and health equity. Dr. Appel has been the recipient of various awards and grants. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award focusing on improving and broadening understanding of the mental health of underserved populations during and post COVID-19.

Selected Publications

Supporting students’ mental health and social emotional learning through community engagement and collaboration. Educational Research, 2023; 65 (3), 285-300.

Psychosocial aspects of cardiovascular disease in African Americans, Global Public Health, 2023; advance publication.

Virtual community-engaged Behavioral Health Day for college students. Journal of Behavioral and Social Sciences, 2021; 8(1), 238-245.

Positive emotional traits and coping related to depression. Traumatology, 2021; 27(4), 455–464.

Selected Grants

Behavioral Health in Underserved Populations, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, 2022-2024

Resilience through Mindfulness, UWB Scholarship, Research, and Creative Practice Seed Grant, 2020-2021

Education

University of Washington
Seattle, WA

  • National Institute of Mental Health, Postdoctoral Fellow
  • National Latino and Asian American Study

Walden University
Minneapolis, MN

  • Ph.D., Health Services. Dissertation: Depression among Minority Women during Pregnancy and Postpartum.

Loma Linda University
Loma Linda, CA

  • M.P.H., Global Health. Thesis: Neighborhood Team Project in Snohomish County.

University of Washington
Seattle, WA

  • B.A., Social Welfare

Contact

Email: happel@uw.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Public Health
  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Building Skills in Health
  • Community Health Partners
  • Pathways to Health Studies
  • Reading and Information Literacy in Nursing
  • Principles of Health Research
  • Fundamentals of Behavioral Health
  • Undergraduate Research in Health