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 convened 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 was co-hosted by Santa Clara University’s School of Education and Counseling Psychology and the University of Virginia’s Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment (TYDE) initiative. It was made possible, in part, by a generous gift to SCU – The Sheri Sobrato Child & Adolescent Mental Health Fund.

It was held on September 29, 2025 on the campus of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.

It was led by a 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)
Claire Payton (University of Virginia)
Bethany Teachman (University of Virginia)
Chongzheng Wei (Santa Clara University)

Agenda

Monday, September 29th

8:15 am

Check-in & Breakfast

9:00 am

Opening Remarks

9:05 am

Panel 1: Digital Mental Health in the LGBTQ+ Community

Juan Acosta, Valerie Grison-Alsop, Janet Sims, Trace Terrell, Chongzheng Wei (moderator)

10:15 am

Special Topic Talk: Harnessing AI for Inclusive and Ethical Mental Health Futures for LGBTQ+ Youth

Alison Cerezo

10:45 am

Coffee Break

10:55 am

Panel 2: Dissemination and Implementation of Mental Health Interventions in the LGBTQ+ Community

Claudia-Santi Fernandes, Deborah Levine, John Pachankis, Caitin Ryan, Bethany Teachman (moderator)

12:05 pm

The Audacity to Hope: Lifesaving Support for LGBTQ+ Youth

Nova Bright-Williams

12:35 pm

Lunch & Poster Session & Tables

1:25 pm

Panel 3: Product Design and Intervention

César Escobar-Viera, Irène Mathieu, Kay Nikiforova, Lionel Ramazzini, Amy Green (moderator)

2:35 pm

Sutter Strong: Caring Contacts: A Suicide Reduction Intervention

Tam T Nguyen

2:55 pm

Coffee Break

3:05 pm

Panel 4: Conducting Research with LGBTQ+ Youth

Jenna Alley, Brian Feinstein, Christian Rummell, Shufang Sun, Greg Hajcak (moderator)

4:10 pm

Keynote Address

Andrew Solomon

5:00 pm

Youth Speaker

Antonella G.

5:10 pm

Closing Remarks

5:15 pm

Adjourn

Speakers

Juan Acosta

Youth Activist

Jenna Alley

UC Los Angeles

Nova Bright-Williams

The Trevor Project

Alison Cerezo

mpathic

César Escobar-Viera

University of Pittsburgh

Brian Feinstien

Rosalind Franklin University

Claudia-Santi Fernandes

Yale University

Valerie Grison-Alsop

Give Us The Floor

Deborah Levine

CenterLink

Irène Mathieu

University of Virginia

Kay Nikiforova

Violet

John Pachankis

Yale

Lionel Ramazzini

Hopelab

Christian Rummell

Mentorist Consulting

Caitlin Ryan

San Francisco State University

Janet Sims

Santa Clara University, emeritus

Andrew Solomon

Author & Journalist

Shufang Sun

Brown University

Trace Terrell

Johns Hopkins University

Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes, Ed.D., LPC, MCHES, NCC is a youth mental health + substance use prevention expert with experience in public schools, clinical settings, and research institutions. Previously, her work focused on a practitioner-based approach in health education, social and emotional learning (SEL), and school climate. She served as a former public school teacher, bilingual school counselor in New York City, and part of the founding leadership team of Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) Newark where she developed and oversaw student-centered policies, programs, and structures. She was also a project director at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence where she led the earlier stage of development for the inspirED Online Resource Center. Recognizing the impact and reach of evidence-informed, technology-based interventions to improve mental health and well-being in youth, she completed her postdoctoral studies in the design and evaluation of digital interventions at the Yale School of Medicine. Since her transition to a research career, she continues to apply a public health approach to reach more youth and to improve their mental health + well-being in schools.

Currently, Dr. Fernandes is the Vice President of Research and Evaluation at Born This Way Foundation and an assistant clinical professor in the Child Study Center as well as an assistant professor adjunct in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science at the Yale School of Medicine. Prior to Born This Way Foundation, she was an assistant professor of Medicine (General Medicine) at the Yale School of Medicine and a Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Scholar where she was funded by NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to lead her team in the development and evaluation of a digital game to prevent suicide among youth who misuse opioids. She aims to continue to use evidence-based research to inform federal-, state-, and local-level policies and to provide support to schools in their implementation efforts. Dr. Fernandes also practices as a licensed professional counselor, served on the Board of Directors for the CT Association of School-Based Health Centers (Treasurer) from 2019-2023, and currently serves on the Digital Well-Being Advisory Board for Peer Health Exchange. She is a 2024-2025 Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with the Yale Women Faculty Forum.