Partnership Training Sites
I Ola Lāhui’s aim is to provide training to interns in effective, culturally-minded interventions for use in Hawai‘i’s rural and medically underserved communities. To enhance the diversity of training experiences available to our interns, I Ola Lāhui maintains the core curriculum and standards for four required clinical experiences across a diverse group of clinical settings in Hawai‘i. Interns acquire a portion of their four required clinical experiences at each of their clinical training site placements. In this way, interns learn to adapt their strategies to fit the needs of the particular community they are in while still learning a consistent core of knowledge and skills. They also have the opportunity to work with a larger array of clinical supervisors and benefit from their unique strengths. Although the number of training sites available will vary by training year, the four required clinical experiences remain constant and are supplemented by additional training experiences available at each training site.
At present, I Ola Lāhui has 6 training sites that comprise the internship program: Waimānalo Health Center, Big Island Substance Abuse Council, and I Ola Lāhui Behavioral Health Services (Honolulu, HI-Keiki, HOME, Project Vision).
Partnership Training Faculty
Our program has a diverse faculty with a wide range of expertise and interests as clinicians and researchers. Members of our faculty and board have joint affiliations with the Hawai`i Psychological Association, Waimānalo Health Center, Hawai‘i Island Family Health Center, BISAC, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Clinical Studies Doctoral Program, and the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology. The program faculty and supervisors have been training, supervising, and delivering services in Hawai`i for the past 17 years as part of the Rural Hawai'i Behavioral Health Program and Tripler Army Medical Center.
Faculty members participate in intern training in a variety of ways. Clinical supervisors provide supervision to interns for all of the direct services they provide. Clinical supervisors provide a minimum of 2 hours of individual supervision to interns each week. Professional Development supervisors interact regularly with interns and meet 1 hour per week with interns individually to provide support and supervision for broader clinical and training issues, research, and professional development. Program faculty provide didactic instruction and training to interns throughout the year and are available to interns for supervision, support, and consultation as needed.
Sid Hermosura, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Supervisor
Dr. Hermosura received his Psy.D. in clinical psychology from Argosy University, Honolulu campus in 2010. He completed a pre-doctoral internship and a postdoctoral fellowship at I Ola Lāhui. He is currently the Director of Behavioral Health at Waimānalo Health Center, where he serves as a Clinical Supervisor for I Ola Lāhui. His interests include primary care behavioral health integration, the prevention and treatment of chronic health conditions to the medically underserved, utilization of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence, and positive psychology.
Hannah Preston-Pita, Psy.D., CSAC
Licensed Clinical Supervisor
Dr. Preston-Pita is the CEO of the Big Island Substance Abuse Council on the island of Hawaii. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Argosy University, Honolulu and is currently a licensed clinical psychologist and certified substance abuse counselor. She currently serves on the board for Mental Health Of America, is a member of the South Hilo Rotary Club, a graduate of the Weinberg Fellowship program, and also has a doctorate in Education with a specialty in Transformational Leadership. She is a mother of five children and enjoys spending time with her family.