San Francisco CA United States
SCHOLAR DIRECTORY
Katherine Reeves, MS, PMHNP-BC
University of California-San Francisco
PhD
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Biography
Hello. I’m Katie, a second year PhD student at UCSF studying adolescent suicide.
I have worked as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner for the last three years in child and adolescent psychiatry, specializing in adolescent affective disorders at a behavioral health clinic in Palo Alto, CA. During my time here I was a founding member of the LGBTQ+ Task Force which moved our clinic closer to being a truly safe space for all kids and lead a group of about 20 teens in writing a book, “Just a Thought: Uncensored narrative on teen mental health”, which highlighted experiences of adolescents living with mental illness in the Bay Area.
My formal education includes a BS from Columbia University after which I received my RN license and an MS from UC San Francisco which preceded my PMHNP license. While obtaining my Masters I was very fortunate to be picked as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow which funded a project in which I helped implement mental health services at a local organization providing housing and recourses to marginally housed youth in San Francisco.
As I continue working on my doctorate I plan to focus on suicidal ideation in adolescents. Specifically, I hope to study
the relationship between suicidal ideation and the body’s biological stress response, as well as intra-individual fluctuations and between individual subtypes of SI among teens. I am so grateful to be chosen as a Jonas Scholar and and am excited to to learn from this stellar group of professionals.
Notes
Research/Clinical Practice Area: Jonas Scholar – Psych-Mental Health
Dissertation: “Daily Variations of Suicidal Ideation and Links to HPA-axis Functioning Among Adolescents at Risk for Suicide”
Although adolescent suicide is on the rise, little is known about suicidal ideation among adolescents or how it may relate to their stress responses during daily life. My project will study the ways in which suicidal ideation may vary throughout the course of a day and week, identify different types of suicidal ideation among teens, and how those types are related to their cortisol, a specific biomarker of their stress response. This information could explain inconsistencies in previous suicide prevention research, inform future research on subtypes of suicidal ideation, suggest when to most effectively intervene to prevent suicide in adolescents, and potentially lead to improved assessment of their suicide risk.