Biography
Ava Michael currently works with Youth-Nex and CASTL as a project coordinator. In Youth-Nex, she supports the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) and the Evidence-Informed Mental Health Prevention, Assessment, Collaboration & Treatment in Middle Schools (E-IMPACTS) project. In CASTL, she supports the CATALYZE Lab with various ongoing studies that are centered around enhancing social-emotional learning.
Before obtaining her master's degree, she worked as a research and outreach coordinator at the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation (CORE) at Penn State Behrend. Her research interests include identifying protective factors that improve youth mental health and identifying factors that enhance a positive school climate.
Education
M.Ed., University of Virginia, 2023
B.S., Pennsylvania State University, The Behrend College, 2021