Check-In and Breakfast
Digital Mental Health & LGBTQ+ Youth: Bridging Industry, Research & Clinical Care
LGBTQ+ youth today face heightened mental health vulnerabilities amid an increasingly complex legislative landscape. This summit convenes key constituents to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities associated with using digital tools to increase safe, ethical, and inclusive access to evidence-based mental health care.
About the Event
The event is co-hosted by the Santa Clara University School of Education and Counseling Psychology and the University of Virginia’s Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment (TYDE) initiative. It is made possible, in part, by a generous gift to SCU – The Sheri Sobrato Child & Adolescent Mental Health Fund.
What to Expect
The summit will include a range of events. Panels will center queer youth perspectives, design and implementation of digital mental health interventions, product development, and research best practices. There will be opportunities to network with constituents from across the field of digital mental health, including researchers, industry experts, and donors.
Who Should Attend
Anyone is welcome, provided they are passionate about the mental health wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth and want to engage in a diverse conversation with queer youth and advocates, researchers, clinicians, funders, and community and health industry leaders. This is an in-person event.
4.5 Continuing Education Credits Available!
We are pleased to announce that 4.5 APA- approved Continuing Education (CE) Credits are available for licensed clinicians. Full attendance is required for CE credit. Sessions will be at an intermediate level of preparation to enhance your clinical skills. This event will be held in person on the SCU campus.
IMPORTANT: Please use this link to register for CE credits. This registration is ONLY to receive credits. After registering for CE Credits, you must also register for the event separately, using this link. Thank you!
ECP is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and maintains responsibility for this program and its content. There is no known conflict of interest or commercial support for this program. This event will be at an Intermediate Level of expertise. All participants must be 18+.
CE credits and Certificates of Attendance are only awarded to licensed clinicians who attend the program in its entirety (all 4 panels, 4.5 hours) and complete the evaluations. No partial credit. Please specify in your registration if you are seeking CEs.
For those who do not qualify for CE credit and attend the program in its entirety, a Participation Letter can be requested.
CE credits and Certificates of Attendance are only awarded to licensed clinicians who attend the program in its entirety (all 4 panels, 4.5 hours) and complete the evaluations. No partial credit. Please specify in your registration if you are seeking CEs.
For those who do not qualify for CE credit and attend the program in its entirety, a Participation Letter can be requested.
Steering Committee
- Jenna Alley (University of California, Los Angeles)
- Brian Feinstein (Rosalind Franklin University)
- Noah French (University of Virginia)
- Amy Green (Hope Lab)
- Greg Hajcak (Santa Clara University)
- John Pachankis (Yale University)
- Claire Payton (University of Virginia)
- Bethany Teachman (University of Virginia)
- Chongzheng Wei (Santa Clara University)
Speakers
Youth Activist, Program Officer, Sierra Health Foundation
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles
Head of Internal Training, Learning, and Development, The Trevor Project
Senior VP of Research, mpathic
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
Associate Professor, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
VP of Research and Evaluation, Born This Way Foundation
Founder & Executive Director, Give Us The Floor
Chief Program Officer, CenterLink
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Virginia
Head of Clinical & Research, Violet
David R. Kessler Professor of Public Health, Professor of Psychology and Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University
Creative Lead, Hopelab
Principal Consultant, Mentorist Consulting
Psychotherapist in Private Practice, SCU Emeritus Faculty
Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, Founder of the Solomon Research Fellowships in LGBT Studies at Yale University
Associate Professor, Brown University
Kessler Presidential Scholar, John Hopkins University
Agenda
Monday, September 29, 2025
8:15 AM
9:00 AM
Opening Remarks
9:05 AM
Panel 1: Digital Mental Health in the LGBTQ+ Community
Featured Speakers: Juan Acosta, Janet Sims, Valerie Grison-Alsop, Janet Sims, Trace Terrell
Learning Objectives:
- Identify 1–3 key mental health needs and challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth in the digital age, including barriers to access and risks unique to online engagement.
- Learn about the benefits and limitations of digital mental health tools (e.g., digital therapy platforms, social media spaces) for promoting mental health and well-being among LGBTQ+ youth.
- Learn to apply 1-3 strategies for integrating digital tools into practice that foster queer joy, gender euphoria, and culturally responsive support for LGBTQ+ youth while minimizing potential harms.
10:15 AM
Special Topics Talk: AI and Mental Health Interventions
Featured Speaker: Alison Cerezo
10:45 AM
Coffee Break
10:55 AM
Panel 2: Dissemination and Implementation of Mental Health Interventions in the LGBTQ+ Community
Featured Speakers: Claudia-Santi Fernandes, Deborah Levine, John Pachankis
Learning Objectives:
- Learn what factors tend to foster successful dissemination and implementation of digital mental health interventions in the LGBTQ+ community.
- Learn about common failure points that interfere with effectively scaling digital mental health interventions for LGBTQ+ youth.
- Learn strategies to build effective and mutually beneficial partnerships to advance digital mental health interventions in the LGBTQ+ community.
12:05 PM
Special Topic Talk: Suicide Prevention and LGBTQ+ Youth
Featured Speaker: Nova Bright-Williams
12:35 PM
Lunch, Poster Session & Tables
1:25 PM
Panel 3: Product Design and Intervention
Featured Speakers: César Escobar-Viera, Irène Mathieu, Kay Nikiforova, Lionel Ramazzini
Learning Objectives:
- Learn ways to design products so interventions are more likely to have strong, positive clinical impacts for LGBTQ+ youth.
- Learn how to integrate youth into the design process so interventions are more likely to keep youth engaged.
- Learn how to approach product design so interventions are effectively tailored to the needs of diverse youth.
2:35 PM
Sutter Strong: Caring Contacts - A Suicide Reduction Intervention
2:55 PM
Coffee Break
3:05 PM
Panel 4: Conducting Research with LGBTQ+ Youth
Featured Speakers: Jenna Alley, Brian Feinstein, Christian Rummell, Shufang Sun
Learning Objectives:
- Learn about challenges and opportunities for leveraging digital technologies to better understand the lived experience of LGBTQ+ youth, and how youth voices and lived experience can be integrated into research.
- Learn ways to navigate challenges that arise in conducting research with LGBTQ+ youth in a digital era (e.g., bots, recruitment).
- Learn ways to balance risk and safety in conducting research with LGBTQ+ youth, including topics such as suicide risk and parental consent.
4:10 PM
Keynote Address
Featured Speaker: Andrew Solomon
5:00 PM
Youth Speaker
5:10 PM
Closing Remarks