Talk Story Health

Co-Founders

Tetine Sentell, PhD

Tetine Sentell, PhD, is an internationally recognized scientist with over 25 years of research and practice experience in understanding and addressing health inequities with a special focus on health communication. She also has extensive experience in academic leadership and project management. A prize winning instructor, Dr. Sentell led projects from the National Institutes of Health, the Hawai‘i Department of Health, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality among other funders and was a Fulbright Specialist. Dr. Sentell has served as a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Methodologic reviewer and in a World Health Organization expert role and as the academic lead of a collaborative social media campaign to amplify voices of the youth of Hawaiʻi across diverse languages to support health equity. Dr. Sentell has published over 125 scientific papers with local, national, and international partners. Dr. Sentell received a Ph.D. in Health Services and Policy Analysis from the University of California, Berkeley and was a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.

Deborah Taira, ScD

Deborah Taira, ScD, is a globally recognized scholar and health economist with a Master’s of Public Affairs from Princeton University and a doctorate in health economics from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health with extensive experience in healthcare research, especially examining health disparities affecting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations, conducting mixed-methods analyses, and collaborating on healthcare research. Her professional background includes roles at the Health Institute at New England Medical Center and the Cardiovascular Data Analysis Center at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, the Hawaii Medical Service Association (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii), and the University of Hawai‘i. She is the Multiple Principal Investigator on an FDA-funded grant focused on improving clinical trial diversity and promoting food safety. She has received a Fulbright Specialist Scholarship and was awarded an Expanding National Capacity in Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) through Training (ENACT) fellowship through the University of Pittsburgh. Her contributions to health disparities and patient-centered outcomes research are widely acknowledged through numerous publications and professional memberships.