Kelly Whaling is the recipient of the American Psychological Foundation’s 2017 Violet and Cyril Franks Scholarship. Her project concerns redressing suicidality and stigma among Latina youth and does so from a social justice, strength-based perspective.
The American Psychological Foundation Violet and Cyril Franks Scholarship supports graduate-level scholarly projects that use a psychological perspective to help understand and reduce stigma associated with mental illness. The scholarship helps address research that shows that stigma is a significant barrier to treatment and recovery for many of the 50 million Americans living with mental illness.
Whaling just completed her first year as a doctoral student earning a Ph.D. in Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology from UC Santa Barbara. Whaling’s research interests broadly regard examining issues pertaining to Latin@ mental health from social justice frameworks, and specifically, access to mental health care and community outreach/interventions for Latin American immigrant youth who have experienced trauma, depression, and/or suicidality. She is working with Dr. Andrés Consoli on projects regarding: (1) alternative cultural paradigms in Latin@ psychology, (2) utilization of mental health services by Mexican/Mexican Americans with depression, and (3) analyzing the National Latino/a Psychological Association’s membership.