SAVIR Member Spotlight: Kelsey Conrick, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar

I am passionate about creating and refining interventions to prevent firearm injuries, like from suicide, unintentional injuries, or assault. Specifically, I have led the development of Pathways 2 Safety, which is a training program for behavioral health providers that teaches them how to talk to clients about firearms and guides their agency in making changes to ensure their providers (and therefore clients) are fully supported. I grew up in rural Alabama, so I’ve seen first-hand both the impact of firearm injuries in low-resource communities as well as the promise of behavioral health providers as part of the solution.

How long have you been a member of SAVIR? What has been your favorite part about being involved with SAVIR?

I’ve been a member of SAVIR 2019, and I have been honored to be selected to serve on the Board of Directors twice and as the Co-Chair for the Student and Early Career Professionals committee. I love any opportunity I get to connect with my fellow early career scholars; this is such a challenging and vulnerable time to be a student or early career scholar, and SAVIR has been so intentional in cultivating this community.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career so far?

In the last few months, we have trained over 400 behavioral health clinicians and 80 students from 5 degree programs with Pathways 2 Safety. I have started to run into people who completed this training at the park or grocery store who have told me how much they appreciated the program, and the privilege of hearing directly from people who feel helped by the effort we have put into this intervention is unmatched.

What do you like to do in your free time?