Brenna Maddox, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, TEACHH Autism Program in the School of Medicine. Maddox aspires to improve mental health services for autistic individuals by partnering with autistic people, their family members and other key stakeholders. With this collaboration, Maddox wants to improve the quality of care that suicidal autistic individuals receive, decrease their risk of related injuries and prevent devastating and premature deaths.
The Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars (FES) program brings together selected faculty from across campus to engage in a two-year experiential, competency-based curriculum designed to advance their engaged scholarship. Scholars participate in sessions in community settings to learn from other Carolina faculty and their community partners. While developing individual projects, each class of scholars forms a learning community along with the faculty and community course directors to support one another’s projects and community partners.