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Bev Rosario-Williams, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in Health, Behavior and Society, is one of two fellows at the Bloomberg School who received the 2025 Samuel Jordan Graham Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. In addition to Rosario-Williams, Murilo Ramos Rocha, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is the other recipient of the Award. 

The Award provides funding support for a postdoctoral fellow leading research integrating both medical and public health perspectives under the supervision of faculty co-mentors from the schools of Medicine and Public Health.

Rosario-Williams’ research centers on understanding the sociocultural context that protects against or increases risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in youth. Through her research, she aims to design and implement culturally appropriate, family-based interventions to reduce suicide risk and leverage digital media to increase access to care and destigmatize mental health.  

The Award will support the initial development of a suicide prevention mobile app tailored for Spanish-speaking caregivers. The app will combine universal suicide prevention strategies with evidence-based therapeutic skills drawn from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), an intervention focused on increasing emotion regulation and interpersonal skills while reducing self-harming behaviors. The goal is to provide caregivers with culturally relevant education on suicide prevention, strengthen the parent-child relationship, and offer accessible self-care tools to help parents manage high levels of stress.

Rosario-Williams’ mentors serving on the project are Kiara Álvarez, PhD, assistant professor in Health, Behavior and Society, and , MD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the School of Medicine. With co-mentoring and integration of medicine and public health perspectives serving as key aspects of the award, Rosario-Williams will be drawing on expertise in digital health implementation, health equity, and behavioral medicine to inform the design and evaluation of the intervention.

“The integration of medicine and public health perspectives will be crucial in ensuring that the app is not only clinically sound but also scalable and accessible within real-world systems of care,” says Rosario-Williams. “Collaborating across disciplines will allow me to embed the intervention within broader suicide prevention efforts, increasing its potential public health impact.” 

Rosario-Williams is a licensed clinical psychologist with a background in providing evidence-based and trauma-informed interventions for adolescents. She received her PhD in Psychology from the City University of New York and completed her pre-doctoral internship at Children’s National Hospital.