Shumenghui Zhai, PhD, MPH, RN

Assistant Professor

Email: szhai@plu.edu

  • Professional

Education

  • PhD, Nursing Science , University of Washington, School of Nursing
  • MPH, Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, School of Public Health
  • BSN, Nursing Science , Nanjing Medical University

Areas of Emphasis or Expertise

  • Sleep health
  • Sleep health equity
  • Artificial intelligence in health care
  • Digital health interventions
  • Family caregiving
  • Asian American and Pacific Islander health
  • Community-based participatory research
  • Health equity

Selected Publications

Research Projects

  • Dr. Shumenghui Zhai is an Assistant Professor of Nursing whose research focuses on advancing sleep health equity through community-engaged research, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital health innovations. Her work aims to improve health outcomes among underserved populations, particularly Asian American communities and family caregivers.  She integrates behavioral science, implementation science, and AI-enabled approaches to develop culturally responsive interventions that promote health equity.

Selected Presentations

  • Western Institute of Nursing (WIN) Conference, Culturally adapted conversational agent and user experience: A user study [Poster presentation], San Francisco, CA (April 21-24, 2026)
  • Western Institute of Nursing (WIN) Conference, Artificial intelligence in sleep health: A systematic review, San Francisco, CA (April 21-24, 2026)
  • AMIA 2025 Annual Symposium, Evaluating Prompt- Based vs Context Engineering-Enabled Cultural Adaptation for a Mental Health Conversational Agent Supporting Chinese Family Caregivers, Atlanta, GA (November 15-19, 2025)
  • 153rd APHA Annual Meeting, Toward Responsible AI in Mental Health: Evaluating LLMs Through a Clinical Lens, Washington, DC (November 2025)
  • GSA 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting, Evaluating the Cultural Relevance of AI Therapist Responses for Chinese American Caregivers of Older Adults, Boston, MA (November 12, 2025)
  • ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Patient-reported symptom assessments and premature chemotherapy discontinuation in patients with gastrointestinal cancers, Chicago, IL & Online (October 10, 2025)
  • Pediatric Academic Society, SLEEEPSMART: A Shared-Management Web-Based Intervention for Sleep Deficiency in School-Age Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and their Parents: Feasibility and Acceptability Study, Hawaii (2025)
  • Society of Behavioral Medicine, A Shared-Management Web-Based Intervention for Sleep Deficiency in School-Age Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and their Parents: Feasibility and Acceptability Study., San Francisco, CA (March 28, 2025)
  • Scholarship of Nursing Conference 2024, Integrating Human-Centered Design and Implementation Science Outcomes to Evaluating Behavioral Intervention Technologies, Tacoma, WA (May 2024)
  • Western Institute of Nursing Annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference, Evaluating Behavioral Intervention Technologies: Integrating Human-Centered Design and Implementation Science Outcomes, Salt Lake City, UT (April 2024)
  • Asian American Pacific Islander Nurses Association Conference, Associations between Sleep Problems, Depression Symptoms, and Serum Ferritin Levels among Asian Americans: the NHAENS 2017-2018, Los Angeles, CA (August 2023)
  • Western Institute of Nursing Annual Comminicating Nursing Research Conference, Analysis, Evaluation, and Reformulation of Social Cognitive Theory: Towards Parent-Child Shared Management in Sleep Health, Tucson, AZ (April 2023)
  • 2022 CANS State of the Science Congress, A sleep-self-management intervention (SLEEPSMART) for Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Parents: Feasibility and Acceptability., Washington DC (September 2022)
  • 2022 CANS State of the Science Congress, Digital Health Tools Assisted Interventions to Support Family Caregivers: An Updated Systematic Review, Washington DC (September 2022)
  • 4th Annual Ignite Aging Symposium, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Older Adults Perceptions and Beliefs about Brain Health, Washington DC (October 2021)
  • 47th Annual Transcultural Nursing Society Conference, A synthesis and analysis for critiques of cultural frameworks to understanding health and healthcare including Leininger’s Culture Care Theory, Albuquerque, NM (October 2021)
  • International Community Health Services, Guest Speaker. Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Older Adults Perceptions and Beliefs about Brain Health, Seattle, WA (October 2021)
  • 47th Annual Transcultural Nursing Society Conference, A synthesis and analysis for critiques of cultural frameworks to understanding health and healthcare including Leininger’s Culture Care Theory [Podium session], Albuquerque, NM (October 2021)
  • 149th APHA Annual Meeting, A patient navigator-led intervention improved psychosocial outcomes among medically underserved Asian Americans with chronic hepatitis B [Podium session], Denver, CO (October 2021)
  • Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, Sleep Attitudes and Beliefs in Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Their Caregivers [Poster Presentation] (June 2021)
  • Western Institute of Nursing Annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference, Asian Older Adults Perceptions and Knowledge about Brain Health [Podium presentation] (April 2021)
  • Western Institute of Nursing Annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference, Participatory Design of a Tailored Self-Management Program for Caregivers of Children [Poster presentation], Portland, OR (April 2020)
  • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Testing a Program to Help Monitor Chronic Hepatitis B among Asian-American Patients., Washington, DC (2020)
  • 13th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, Improving monitoring and treatment adherence among underserved Asian Americans with chronic hepatitis B through a patient navigator-led intervention [Small Talk Presentation], Miami, FL (October 2020)

Selected Articles

  • Zhai, S., Yuwen, W., Zyniewicz, T. L., Sonney, J., Hash, J., Chen, M., & Ward, T. M.. "Evaluating behavioral intervention technologies: Integrating human-centered design and implementation science outcomes." Digital Health Vol. 11, Jul 15, 2025:
  • Zhai, S., Palermo, T. M., Shenoi, S., Demiris, G., Howard, W., Kientz, J., ... & Ward, T. M.. "A shared-management web-based intervention for sleep deficiency in school-age children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and their parents: feasibility and acceptability study." Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine Vol. 21(6), Jun 03, 2025: 1007-1021.
  • Liang, Y., Li, J., Xie, S., Zhai, S., Fan, X., & Yuwen, W.. "Evaluating the Cultural Relevance of AI Therapist Responses for Chinese American Caregivers of Older Adults." Innovation in Aging Vol. 9(Supplement 2), 2025:
  • Xie, S. J., Zhai, S., Liang, Y., Li, J., Fan, X., Cohen, T., & Yuwen, W.. "Cultural Prompting Improves the Empathy and Cultural Responsiveness of GPT-Generated Therapy Responses." arXiv preprint arXiv 2025:
  • Zeng, C., Ufere, N. N., Dykes, P. C., Zhai, S., Chen, Y. J., Ye, J., ... & Kenzik, K. M.. "Longitudinal Associations of Chemotherapy-Induced Symptom Clusters with Healthcare Utilization and Mortality among Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers." medRxiv 2025-10:
  • Zeng, C., Ahmed, M., Chen, Y. J., Zhai, S., Rocque, G. B., Olisakwe, S. C., ... & Liu, J. B.. "Patient-Reported Symptom Assessments and Early Chemotherapy Discontinuation in Routine Gastrointestinal Cancer Care." medRxiv 2025-10:
  • Zhu, L., Li, X., Liu, E. Z., Siu, P. T., Zhai, S., Pan, C., Cao, N., & Ma, G. X.. "Beyond the Check-Up: How Well-Child Exams, Pediatric Specialists, and Provider Recommendations Can Close HPV Vaccine Gaps for Chinese American Teens." Research square 2025:
  • Zeng, C., Liu, J. B., Ahmed, M., Ufere, N., Chen, Y. J., Zhai, S., ... & Lau-Min, K. S.. "Patient-reported symptom assessments and premature chemotherapy discontinuation in patients with gastrointestinal cancers." JCO Oncology Practice Vol. 21(Supplement 10), 2025: 383.
  • Zeng, C., Ahmed, M., Chen, Y. J., Zhai, S., Rocque, G. B., Olisakwe, S. C., ... & Liu, J. B.. "Patient-Reported Symptom Assessment and Early Chemotherapy Discontinuation in Routine Gastrointestinal Cancer Care." medRxiv 2025-10:
  • Zeng, C., Ufere, N., Dykes, P. C., Zhai, S., Chen, Y. J., Edelen, M. O., ... & Kenzik, K. M.. "Longitudinal Associations of Chemotherapy-Induced Symptom Clusters with Healthcare Utilization and Mortality among Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers." medRxiv 2025-10:
  • Zhai, S., Hash, J., Ward, T., Yuwen, W., & Sonney, J.. "Analysis, evaluation, and reformulation of social cognitive theory: Toward parent-child shared management in sleep health." Journal of Pediatric Nursing Vol. 73, 2023: e63-e74.
  • Zhai, S., Chu, F., Tan, M., Chi, N. C., Ward, T., & Yuwen, W.. "Digital health interventions to support family caregivers: An updated systematic review." Digital Health Vol. 9, 2023:
  • Ma, G., Zhu, L., Tan, Y., Zhai, S., Ma, X., Ogunwobi, O. O., Yang, W. J., Ting, T., Kim, S., & Wang, M. Q.. "A Comparative Trial of Improving Care for Underserved Asian Americans Infected with Hepatitis B Virus." Digestive diseases and sciences Vol. 68(6), 2023: 2333-2343.
  • Zhai, S., Kim, B., Li, J., Wi, D., Chey, S., Li, G., Rungruangkonkit, S., & Belza, B.. "Perceptions and Beliefs of Memory Loss and Dementia Among Korean, Samoan, Cambodian, and Chinese Older Adults: A Cross-Cultural Qualitative Study." Journal of gerontological nursing Vol. 48(6), 2022: 40-48.
  • Ma, G., Zhu, L., Zhai, S., Lin, T. R., Tan, Y., Johnson, C., Fang, C. Y., Belinson, J. L., & Wang, M. Q.. "Empowering Low-Income Asian American Women to Conduct Human Papillomavirus Self-Sampling Test: A Community-Engaged and Culturally Tailored Intervention." Cancer Control 2022:
  • Ma, G., Zhu, L., Tan, Y., Zhai, S., Lin, T. R., Zambrano, C., Siu, P., Lai, S., & Wang, M. Q.. "A Multilevel Intervention to Increase HPV Vaccination among Asian American Adolescents." Journal of community health Vol. 47(1), 2022: 9-16.
  • Zhai, S., Ward, T., Palermo, T.M., & Ringold, S.. "Sleep Attitudes and Beliefs in Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Their Caregivers." Sleep Vol. 44(Supplement 2), 2021: A228.
  • Zhai, S., Phillips, S., & Ward, T. M.. "Sleep Deficiency and Pediatric Chronic Pain." Nursing Clinics Vol. 56(2), 2021: 311-323.
  • Ma, G., Zhai, S., Zhu, L., Siu, P., Tan, Y., Lai, S., ... & Wang, M. Q.. "Promising effects of a culturally tailored multilevel pilot intervention to increase HPV vaccination uptake among Asian American female and male adolescents." Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention Vol. 29(6), 2020:
  • Ma, G. X., Tan, Y., Zhu, L., Wang, M. Q., Zhai, S., Yu, J., ... & Fang, C.. "Testing a Program to Help Monitor Chronic Hepatitis B among Asian-American Patients." Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) 2020:

Accolades

  • Sleep Research Society Foundation Career Development Award, 2026-2027

Professional Memberships/Organizations

  • Sleep Research Society
  • American Academy of Sleep Medicine
  • Western Institute of Nursing
  • Sigma Theta Tau's Society of Nursing