The ETUDES Scholars Program

The ETUDES Scholar program is for early career investigators (postdoctoral fellows and Assistant Professors) who are pursuing a career related to identification and treatment of youth at high risk for depression and suicide, and are interested in a formal affiliation with the ETUDES Center.

Program Offerings

The ETUDES Scholar program provides access to a range of ETUDES resources to further career development, including:

  1. Attendance at regularly scheduled ETUDES clinical and methods trainings with experts in the fields of youth suicidality, implementation science, health equity and data analytics (among others)

  2. Formal mentorship from 2 ETUDES faculty

  3. Access to data, data management and data analysis consultation and support to prepare manuscripts, presentations and grant proposals

  4. Biannual meetings with the cohort of ETUDES Scholars to build collaborations and learn about other scholars’ ongoing work in this area

  5. Potential for pilot funding to collect preliminary data in support of grant proposals

  6. Opportunity to collaborate on ongoing ETUDES projects of interest

  7. Attendance at annual ETUDES Scientific Advisory Board Meetings

ETUDES Scholar Faculty Mentors (2024-2025)

Meet the 2024-2025 Etudes Scholars

  • Polina Krass, MD MSHP

    Fellow Physician, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

    Dr. Krass is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellow at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She also serves as a research scholar in the CHOP Center for Violence Prevention, an affiliate trainee at CHOP PolicyLab, and an associate fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Krass’ research focuses on understanding mental health risks amongst youth presenting to the pediatric emergency department, particularly those with a history of trauma victimization, and on implementing innovative suicide prevention strategies in this setting. 

  • Alexandra Huttle, MD MSc

    Assistant Attending Pediatrician, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital & Instructor in Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine & Fellow, Cornell-Hunter Health Equity Research Fellowship

    Dr. Huttle is a general pediatrician passionate about integrating mental health care within pediatric primary care. Her research focuses on evaluating and refining current suicide prevention strategies to facilitate the successful delivery of safe suicide practices across primary care settings. She is particularly interested in adapting and implementing innovative interventions for community-based pediatricians, thereby advancing equitable care for children and adolescents at risk for suicide.

  • Priyanka Joshi, MD

    Critical Care Health Policy T32 Trainee, University of Pennsylvania, & Pediatric Emergency Medicine Attending, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

    Priyanka Joshi, MD is a T32 postdoctoral trainee in Critical Care Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and an attending physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Health Policy Research at Penn. Her research centers on improving health outcomes for underserved pediatric populations by identifying barriers to care and developing evidence-based interventions to improve acute care utilization. She is currently studying how socioeconomic factors as measured by the Child Opportunity Index impact ED utilization for mental health crises and subsequent outpatient follow up in primary care.

  • Nermin Toukhy, PhD

    I am a Fulbright International Post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh. I am a licensed psychologist and have completed my PhD degree in Psychology in Bar-Ilan University in Israel. My research focuses on using digital platforms for the delivery of mental health interventions among adolescents. I am particularly interested in examining a digital health intervention for the prevention and reduction of suicide behaviors among youth at-risk for suicide. 

  • H. Nur Eken, MD

    Resident Physician, Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center 

    Dr. Eken is a Psychiatry Resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her research focuses on understanding how combined biological and behavioral  treatments work for the treatment of depression and OCD, as well as understanding risk factors in suicidality and behavioral emergencies. She is  particularly interested in incorporating digital health methodologies in assessment and treatment of mental health disorders in diverse populations. 

ETUDES Scholars Alumni (2022-2024)

  • Dashawna J. Fussell-Ware, PhD, LSW

    Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work

    Dr. Fussell-Ware is primarily interested in researching the disparities in mental health treatment access for youth of color and hopes to address this by promoting mental health literacy. As an ETUDES Scholar, she hopes to continue her past research to develop and test a mental health literacy tool for youth of color. She seeks to improve skills in survey development and analysis, intervention development, psychometrics, grant proposal formation, and training opportunities.

  • Jaclyn S. Kirshenbaum, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University

    Dr. Kirshenbaum is interested in the processes that change during adolescence and how they relate to suicidality. She hopes that as an ETUDES scholar, they will learn more about mobile sensing, sleep health, predictive modeling, suicidality, and conducting research at multiple sites. She proposes research that will test whether separately and/or combined, social disconnectedness and poor sleep health predict suicidal thoughts or behaviors in youth. Building these skills will help her to apply for future research grants studying the modifiable processes that impact youth suicidality.

  • Brittney D. Singletary, LCSW

    PhD Student, New York University Silver School of Social Work

    Singletary hopes to build on her background in mood disorders, trauma, and suicidality in youth, particularly youth of color, in the ETUDES Scholar program. She seeks to investigate how sociocultural and psychosocial factors affect suicidality in Black youth using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. To accomplish this research, Singletary is seeking training in advanced statistical analysis, cultural competence, and community-based participatory research with the ETUDES Center.

  • Benjamin T. Paul, LCSW, BCD

    PhD Student, University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work

    With a background in social work in the U.S. Army, Paul seeks to partner with the BRITEPath team to learn more about youth suicidality and racial disparities in mental health, which he can tie into his foundation of knowledge working with the military. Working with the ETUDES Center would help improve skills in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis and administering clinical assessments. Paul believes experience with the ETUDES Center will help bridge gaps in his knowledge that he can take forward into future case conceptualization.

  • Kavya Mudiam

    PhD Student, University of Oregon Clinical Psychology

    Mudiam is interested in racial disparities in the U.S., and how Black and Hispanic/Latinx youth, confounded with LGBTQ+ identity, are at a higher risk for suicidality. She hopes to draw from data collected in the TSC and SMILEY studies to pull information regarding behavioral health experiences and the pros and cons as well as acceptability of behavioral health interventions, especially for youth of color. She also hopes to receive mentorship on conducting mixed-methods research with qualitative elements.