CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Ebonee T. Johnson, PhD, an emerging scholar in the field of youth mental health, is the keynote presenter at the 2023 Carlton-Mellichamp Lecture in Education at the University of Northern Iowa on April 26.

Johnson will present “Utilizing Community-Engaged Research to Build Capacity in Stakeholders to Address Youth Mental Health.” She is an assistant professor in the Department of Community & Behavioral Health and a research-affiliated faculty member in the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health at the University of Iowa. Her research utilizes community engagement to develop and implement psychosocial interventions. She currently serves as the program director or principal investigator on six grants, including the Iowa School Mental Health Initiative to build stakeholder capacity to address school mental health. 

A reception from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in the College of Education’s second floor atrium precedes the keynote lecture, slated for 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Schindler Education Center Budke Auditorium. The event is free and open to the UNI students, faculty and staff and interested area professionals. Registration is encouraged on the event website. 

This is the fourth in a series created in 2018. The series is supported by a donation to the UNI Foundation by Suzanne Carlton and Duncan Mellichamp. It allows the College of Education to stimulate the dissemination, public scrutiny and implementation of ideas with the potential to bring about significant improvement in professional practice and educator preparation.