Dr. Sherry Davis Molock, Ph.D., M.Div. at the Gilliam Fellows Annual Meeting 2020
Dr. Sherry Molock has been an associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at The George Washington University (GWU) for over 23 years. Her research interests revolve around the study and identification of the risk and protective factors associated with suicide in African American adolescents. As a scientist, Dr. Molock has been identified as a leading expert in understanding suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescents and young adults, as seen by her publications and NIMH Director’s Award. Over her career, Dr. Molock has developed extensive experience in planning contextualized suicide prevention programs surrounding suicidology, working with groups such as the American Association of Suicidology and National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. These intervention/prevention programs are designed to take the culture of the targeted community into account so that we can tailor interventions based on community norms of help seeking. To this end, Dr. Molock has developed several pilot studies and suicide prevention programs for youth in faith-based communities. Dr. Molock strongly believes that the health of a community’s ecosystem is reliant upon ensuring the most vulnerable members are taken care of. The most vulnerable within the Academic ecosystem are the graduate students, due to the high-stress, demand and power dynamic they exist within. She emphasizes the necessity of creating dialogues and offering training to advisors in dealing with mentees so that they can handle students in crises and ensure they do the best science. This involves educating faculty on how to create more welcoming environments within their research spaces so that students can feel comfortable discussing any issue with their professors.