The PA Foundation and AAPA have selected PA fellows to participate in the new PArtnership to Improve Student Mental Health program, supported by the RBC Foundation, which aims to address trauma or mental health challenges students may experience in the classroom. The fellows will be presenting to schools in or around New York, NY, Schenectady, NY, Denver, CO, and New Orleans, LA.
The PA fellows will participate in a youth mental health training program focused on issues of trauma-informed care for students, mindfulness techniques, evidence-based best practices, and more. Upon completion of the training, these PAs will partner with schools in their communities to train teachers and administrators on ways to improve interactions with students impacted by mental health challenges, working to strengthen understanding of youth mental health and better support students’ mental health needs.
The project was inspired by the work of Erin Crown, a Pennsylvania PA and founder of the Pennsylvania Mental Health Initiative. Crown helped to lead mental health training with three central Pennsylvania school districts in 2021, helping teachers and administrators better understand the different mental health issues that may affect students. She will be leading the training of our PA fellows and supporting their efforts throughout the fellowship.
2024 PArtnership to Improve Student Mental Health Fellows
Kelli Cooper, PA-C
Kelli Cooper has been a PA for 10 years, graduating with her master’s degree in 2014 from the University of Colorado. She worked for many years in family practice at a Federally Qualified Health Center and now works in pediatrics at a school-based clinic in Denver.
Hwal Lee, DMSc, PA-C
Hwal Lee is a dual certified Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor and a presenter for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Talk Saves Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention. He was a member of the PA Foundation’s inaugural Mental Health Outreach Fellowship in 2018 and is glad to be collaborating with the Foundation again on the new mental health initiative. He practices primary care internal medicine at Oldendorf Medical Services in upstate New York.
Cheng (Cindy) Qian, PA-C
Cheng (Cindy) Qian has been a PA for 11 years and is currently the PA supervisor for department of surgery at Forest Hills Hospital. As an immigrant and minority, she says mental health was not a focus during her upbringing; however, as the world is getting smaller with social media, its impact on the mental health of young adults has become more pronounced than ever before. Now a mother of two daughters, this issue is on her mind, as it is for many parents. With this opportunity, she is eager to give back to the community that embraced her upon immigrating here. She says it is a privilege to participate in this initiative while maintaining her focus on surgery, and it really highlights the versatility of the PA profession.
Laura Villanueva, PA-C
Laura Villanueva has been working as PA for the past 6 years. She graduated from the CUNY School of Medicine before relocating to California and working for Stanford Medical Center doing outpatient psychiatry. Laura returned to NY to work in the psych ER at Queens Hospital in NYC and then joined Northwell Health, where she has been working at South Shore University Hospital in the ER doing Emergency Psychiatry. Fun fact – she was the first PA to work in Psychiatry at South Shore Hospital!