Dr. Julie Cerel
Professor, Licensed Psychologist at the University of Kentucky
Webinar Description
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college-aged individuals. Approximately 24,000 college students attempt suicide each year, and over a thousand end their lives. A third of college students report symptoms of depression or anxiety.
This webinar will talk about how student suicides and attempts have a large effect on the students, faculty, and staff left behind. It will discuss how to approach the issues of mental health crises in students and how to have crisis conversations in ways that are relevant for students.
This will include a discussion of gatekeeper training and universal safety planning. The concept of postvention and how to build trauma-informed responses to suicides will be discussed.
Learning Objectives
During the webinar, participants will:
- Understand the impact of suicide exposure and bereavement on individuals and communities.
- Learn how to have crisis conversations with people who might be at risk of suicide on a campus.
- Explore the importance of multiple strategies for prevention, including gatekeeper training and universal safety planning.
- Recognize how a campus can build trauma-informed response procedures for postvention.
Content Warning
This training will address suicide prevention and postvention, including discussion of:
- Impacts of suicide exposure on individuals and communities.
- Data-driven findings and evidence-based strategies for prevention.
- Trauma-informed responses to student suicide and postvention practices.
Because these topics are explored using real data, research, and case examples, some material may feel distressing or triggering.
This content is included because grounding prevention in evidence—leads to stronger, more effective outcomes. We are committed to approaching the material with both care and candor.
Presenter
Dr. Cerel is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. She is the director of the Suicide Prevention & Exposure Lab at the University of Kentucky and the Wilson Profession of Mental Health. Her research has focused on suicide exposure and bereavement, suicide attempt survivors and suicide prevention. She is a Past-President of the American Association of Suicidology.
She completed her PhD from The Ohio State University, an internship and post-doctoral fellowship from West Virginia University in child clinical psychology and a post-doctoral fellowship specifically in suicide prevention from University of Rochester. She received an honorary PhD from Kenyon College. In 2023 she was elected a fellow of the American Psychology Association. She received the 2025 International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) Norman Farberow Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Bereavement and Lived Experience.
She is the author of over 125 academic publications and co-author of Seeking Hope: Stories of the Suicide Bereaved. Her work has been funded by the Military Suicide Research Consortium from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Patient Centered Research Initiative (PCORI), NIHM, the CDC, SAMHSA, SPAN-USA and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She is regularly quoted by the media and has appeared in NBC news, NPR, O Magazine and Teen Vogue.
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