Kelli Agrawal, a USF College of Public Health (COPH) PhD student concentrating in community and family health, is a Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) student fellow in injury prevention. The fellowship, which runs from Sept. 2022 to July 2023, is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The fellowship recognizes, assists and trains students working on research or practice-based projects in unintentional injury prevention from the perspective of health education or the behavioral sciences. It also includes suicide prevention as an area of interest.

Agrawal’s research focuses on suicide prevention among youth and LGBTQ+ communities, particularly in Pinellas County, Fla.

“Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among youth and young adults in the United States, and the risk of suicidal behaviors is even higher among LGBTQ+ youth,” Agrawal said. “Throughout my time in the PhD program, I have been involved with different suicide-prevention research projects, but it was the Growing Hope initiative [that aims to raise awareness of and engage community partners in suicide-prevention resources] with Dr. Joe Bohn, [a COPH assistant professor and director of community engagement] and the Communication Resilience course offered by Dr. Patrice Buzzanell (in the Department of Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences at USF) that inspired my idea for the workshops. As someone who experienced suicidal behaviors during adolescence and has lost loved ones to suicide, this issue is also very important to me personally.”

The fellowship project is a collaborative endeavor with the Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas, a collective impact project with a mission to end suicide in Pinellas County.

“The workshops are designed to be interactive and focus on strengths-based primary prevention strategies, which help participants enact communication resilience [defined as the communication methods people use to cope with disruptive life events] intentionally and mindfully, not only in moments of crises but throughout their day-to-day lives,” Agrawal explained. “These strategies also closely align with the Growing Hope action message: Be Kind, Be Curious and Be Connected.”

Agrawal says the fellowship has given her access to resources, support and collective expertise that will benefit her academic journey and professional life. 

“I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate to have received the fellowship,” she said. “Even more so, I feel a great sense of responsibility. I am hopeful that these workshops will have a positive impact on participants, as well as their families, school and communities.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health