A Palo Alto University professor whose work is focused around depression and suicide in ethnic minority adult and geriatric populations will present Nebraska Wesleyan University's Clifford Fawl Psychology Lecture on Friday, March 29.
Joyce Chu is a associate professor at Palo Alto University in California. She earned her bachelor's degree and master's degree in psychology at Stanford University and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan. Her work aims to understand barriers to service use and develop culturally congruent outreach and service options for Asian Americans and other underserved communities. She and her colleagues have developed a tool to assist clinicians in accounting for cultural influences on suicide risk.
At Palo Alto, Chu co-leads the Multicultural Suicide and Ethnic Minority Mental Health Research Groups, and is also the Director of the Diversity and Community Mental Health emphasis which trains future psychologists to work with underserved populations in the public mental health sector. Under her leadership, the DCMH emphasis has received awards for innovative practices in graduate education in psychology by both the American Psychological Association Board of Educational Affairs and the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology.
Her lecture, "Rethinking Our Approach to Suicide: Diversity and Culture," begins at 4:30 p.m. in Olin B Lecture Hall, located inside the Olin Hall of Science, one block east of 50th Street and Saint Paul Ave.
The Clifford Fawl Lecture honors the long-time professor and chair of Nebraska Wesleyan’s Psychology Department. The series brings in nationally-recognized speakers in the area of psychology.