Alagia Justice Cirolia (she/they) is a PhD student who received both their BA in Cognitive Science with High Honors (‘17) and MSW (‘23) from UC Berkeley. Alagia is a proud multi-racial, first-generation scholar from Oceanside, CA, who became motivated by their own academic experiences to study school-based mental health services and their impact on under-resourced communities. Alagia is committed to transforming educational systems in order to promote youth mental health and wellbeing and foster belonging among marginalized students.
Their research focuses on school-based mental health implementation, and interprofessional collaboration among mental health providers and school staff. Alagia (ACSW, PPSC) is also a practitioner who firmly believes that research, practice, and teaching are mutually beneficial. Alagia is currently pursuing their LCSW as a counselor at The JMP, a school-based health center.
Alagia’s research supports CalHOPE Student Support, a community partnership advancing statewide Social and Emotional Learning implementation, and the Sacramento County Office of Education’s work on schools as “Centers of Wellness”. CalHOPE earned the 2024 UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Campus-Community Partnerships and the Society for Prevention Research Public Service Award. Their honors include the 2024 Outstanding Graduate Peer Mentorship Award, a Computational Social Science Training Program (NIH T-32) fellowship, and the Latinx Center of Behavioral Excellence fellowship.
School-Based Mental Health; Implementation Science; School Belonging; Schools as Institutions; Research-Community Partnership; Inter-professional Collaboration
