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On April 8, 2025, Department of Health Policy and Management PhD candidate Kim DeFiori, MBA, MA, won the Outstanding Public Engagement Through Research Communication award at the competition. Designed by the , the Empower Your Pitch competition celebrates the art of blending scholarship and communication. Winners will represent Johns Hopkins University at an inter-university contest in the University of Texas at Austin during the upcoming summer. 

During DeFiori’s pitch, titled , she shares her plan to conduct more than 40 interviews with LGBTQ veterans who have a suicidal history, healthcare providers and government officials who serve LGBTQ veterans, and surviving friends and family of LGBTQ veterans who have died by suicide. “By centering on lived experiences, we go beyond the numbers and find the strategies that save lives,” says DeFiori.  

In this post-competition interview, DeFiori discusses her motivation for taking part in the competition, why she’s researching injury prevention, and her relationship with her service dog, Thor. 

Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity. 

In 2004, you joined the U.S. Army as a cadet. What led you to serving in the Army? 

I joined the army because September 11th happened when I was in high school, and I felt a calling to patriotism and serving my country. I always wanted to be a leader, so I decided to go to West Point and learn how to be a leader in the army. 

In 2015, you were a headquarters company commander for the Stryker Brigade. How did you look out for the health of soldiers in this brigade? 

As a commander in Alaska, I was in charge of the entire unit. So everything they were training for, how they're doing health status-wise, everything. From their mental health to their physical health to their training since they have to be able to deploy in a moment's notice. 

Overseeing the people is the most challenging and rewarding part because you can help them through personal struggles and get them the care or resources they need. But it also takes an enormous toll on leaders and that's why the army always rotates their leaders out because it's just an exhausting position. It was one of the coolest things I did in the army because I just love interacting with people and helping them out. 

I see that you brought your service dog with you here today. How long have you had him for? 

I got Thor at the end of 2017, right as I got out of the army, and I got him from an organization so he's well trained. They matched us because I'm a little goofy and he's a little goofy, so our personalities work really well. 

What's one of your favorite memories with Thor? 

Once while we were at a beach in Delaware, there were some decent waves, and he took it upon himself to run full force into him. He was just knocking himself down and kept getting up and kept going, and it was just funny to watch because the beach was empty, which never happens. So it was one of those movie moments where you just get to watch this full, goofy dog just doing his thing, enjoying life. I don't know, I've always wanted to have a beach day as joyous as that. 

In 2021, you published a book called Healing with a Service Dog’s Touch. What's one of the biggest lessons Thor has taught you? 

Thor’s taught me a lot. There's a saying that we used to say in my MBA program that goes “assume positive intent,” and every time Thor goes up to a person, he never has a negative feeling about that person. He always takes them at face value and assumes that person is good. So even though I've been through some stuff and have some mental health issues, I look at the world through Thor’s eyes and say most of the people in this world are good and are going to try to do good things for me, whether I receive it that way or not. Assuming that people have a positive intent no matter how we receive it is probably one of the most valuable things he's taught me. 

What led you to researching injury prevention here at the Bloomberg School? 

As I was getting out of the military, I was struggling with suicidal ideations, attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, all sorts of things. It was difficult for me to navigate care, and I'm a pretty intelligent person. If I am having difficulty navigating this care, I can't imagine someone that might be in more crisis or maybe has less education might be going through. 

That lack of easiness while navigating the system pushed me to do research here. Insurance deductibles are enormous and most people don't even know the different levels of mental healthcare. There's outpatient treatment, there's out intensive outpatient residential, there's acute in-patient. 

That lack of accessibility really made me want to help mental health at a policy level rather than just an individual level. 

What motivated you to take part in the Empower Your Pitch competition? 

I think once we get into scientific research, we have a hard time communicating it without jargon and without getting to the core of the message. We'll forget to include massive parts of the background because we've been in the research so much. So I wanted to get better at communicating what I was researching in a concise way that everyone can understand, like, hey, what are the big parts? Because this is a 3-minute pitch for your whole dissertation. 

How has competing in this competition improved your ability to communicate your research to others? 

They start with the training, and the training was really great because the instructor goes over how to simplify scientific research. I liked getting to the point where I could give this pitch to anyone on the street and know they would most likely understand it. I don't use any quantitative knowledge or anything. I just say, hey, I’m going to go talk to people. Knowing how to unjargon and how to communicate effectively is really good. 

The peer coaches were great, and the judges’ feedback is constructive. They'll tell you different things you can improve. Compared to my first pitch, my last pitch was an entirely different set of slides, different script, everything because I was able to go through that iterative process with the feedback from the judges and my peer mentor. And it was just a really great process. 

Earlier today, your mentor , PhD, MSc, was named this year's Peer Coach Champion. How has she supported you throughout this competition? 

Raluca is a postdoc. She did her PhD here, and now she's a postdoc. She does music research, but they asked the finalists from last year to be mentors this year. And so they paired us up. She has a background in psychology, which was helpful because my pitch is about suicide so she could connect with it and understand it. 

We met on Zoom after the second round of pitches, and she gave me some feedback. She’d review the judges feedback because the judges are doing it in such a condensed way, so it's not always super clear — no fault of them. I was able to look at their feedback, integrate it and then give the pitch to Raluca quite a bit. She was able to find more places I could improve and be more clear about my message. 

How do you like to decompress? 

When I'm not working, I really enjoy being in the outdoors so I like going kayaking. I like walking the dogs. Just anything to go outdoors and get some vitamin D. The research I'm doing is incredibly heavy, so I like trying to find that balance and connect with nature. 

When you're depressed, one of the biggest anecdotes is connection. It’s an easy way to get any sort of mental health boosts. So I just try to get outside and connect with things. 

Do you have any book recommendations? 

Conduct Unbecoming by Randy Shilts. It's about the “Don't ask, don't tell” policy in the military. It highlights a lot of the stories about different service members, including LGBTQ service members and the contributions they made. It also highlights how the “Don't ask, don't tell” policy was a giant let down because we wanted to openly serve, not be told you can’t ask about it and you can't tell about it. It highlights that complex policy and time. 

How do you feel after having won the Outstanding Public Engagement Through Research Communication award? 

I was grateful to win the award. I thought my pitch was great, but then you see everyone else's pitch and you're like, “Oh my gosh.” There's a lot of competition, and these people are doing incredible work. So I was very humbled and surprised that I won. I'm excited to go represent JHU in Austin, Texas. It's a fun town, and I actually did my undergrad thesis research and collaboration with the University of Texas. I think a couple of the researchers are still there, so hopefully I can link up with them. That was back in 2008 so it will be good to see them almost 20 years later.