Kelly Scherer

Kelly is a program specialist at a Crisis Center in the east bay, which focuses on providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention assistance and awareness within the Contra Costa region. She is a graduate from UC Santa Cruz, earning her degree in Neuroscience with an emphasis in behavior analysis and psychology. She focused much of her studies on mental illness, in researching the modes of onset as well as social pressures and barriers which add to the heightened impact on individuals suffering from mental illness. She participated in advocacy within the jail systems during that time, advocating for those that were voiceless and found a passion in working to reduce the stigma behind mental illness through storytelling and culturally normalizing mental health issues.

She is currently researching at UCSF, understanding the impact of late life depression and its long term effects on cognition, bridging the psychological implications of mental illness with the biological repercussions.  Kelly is immensely excited to help bring social awareness to help youth reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness within their communities through Art With Impact.