Vermont Child Health Improvement Program

Natalie T. Ray is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. During her time as a Four Pines Fellow, she developed and implemented a quality improvement project focused on intentional self-poisoning prevention and lethal means safety in pediatric primary care. Her findings were presented at the national Suicide Research Symposium and locally at the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Suicide Prevention Coalition. She currently works in inpatient psychiatric care in Vermont and plans to pursue post-doctoral certification in psychiatric and mental health nursing practice. 

Paige Song graduated from the University of California, San Diego where she earned a degree in human development with a minor in biology. Before starting medical school, she worked as a behavioral therapist for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in California. After medical school she plans to pursue a career in pediatrics or women’s health. Paige is committed to supporting expanded suicide prevention services in primary care settings. Her Fellowship project focused on promoting tools to support pediatricians in identifying and responding to intentional self-poisoning behaviors in young patients through adoption of the Vermont Intentional Self-Poisoning Prevention Toolkit.

Ryan Kamkar is a California native passionate about promoting the health of marginalized community members by examining socioeconomic barriers toward success. His past research and volunteer work with teenagers focused on addressing toxic stress on a community level and its very real manifestations in physiological symptoms. A main goal of his is to help create new community resources that align with the present-day needs of LGBTQ youth. Ryan’s fellowship project examined protective factors and risks related to suicidal ideation in LGB and Trans-identifying Vermont high school aged youth, and his findings have been shared broadly in Vermont and at a national research meeting.

Muhammad Zeb is a second-year student in the Larner College of Medicine at UVM who is currently conducting his Fellowship research project. The project focusses on developing an educational resource for healthcare providers to help in assessing mental health and suicide risk in Afghan refugees living in Vermont. After conducting a series of literature searches and interviewing experts on culturally competent approaches to mental health screening / assessment with Afghan refugees, he developed an training presentation that is being adapted into a self-directed e-learning module and a grand rounds presentation for primary care departments.

Khadija Moussadek is a second-year medical student at the Larner College of Medicine from the Albany NY area and has lived experience of suicide loss. She is committed to research on identifying and providing supports to children, youth and their families in the area of intentional self-harm, which can be a risk factor for later suicide attempts. The outcome of her project will be a self-directed e-learning module for health care providers that summarizes best practices and provides evidence-based screening and assessment tools for intentional self-harm for children and youth.  

Nicole Salib is a second-year student at the UVM Larner College of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park where she studied Psychology and developed a passion for advocating for mental health. Her experiences before medical school include leading a pediatric community service group and working at the Boys and Girls club, where she became committed to children’s health, and she intends to specialize in Pediatrics. Her fellowship project is focused on developing educational supports for preventing intentional self-poisoning in children and youth.