Digital Media and Well-being Seminar Series: Dr. Kofoworola Williams

On May 17th, from 1-2 pm in FXB G13 or online, join us for “Digital Tech and #socialmedia: Equitable Mental Health Intervention Design with and for #them”, a digital media and well-being seminar led by Dr. Kofoworola Williams. Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

Dr. Williams’ program of research emphasizes the design, implementation, and evaluation of mental health interventions that are: delivered on social media and other web-based platforms, culturally relevant, useful, and sustainable over time.

Dr. Williams’ work has leveraged mixed methods grounded in health behavior theory to examine how social/behavioral determinants impact anxiety and depression risk among Black men and understand how these same factors impact their mental health-related help-seeking. Dr. Williams has worked independently and collaboratively, across multiple academic and clinical settings, to explore how social media platforms and user generated content can be leveraged within the space of mental health prevention and promotion. Her latest work employs multi-methods grounded in human-centered design to identify “post-covid” mental health needs and risk among college-attending Black men and investigate their preferences and acceptability for using social media and mobile technologies for their mental health symptom management, stress, self-care, and resource-seeking.

Moving forward, this work will create opportunities for adaptation to other traditionally excluded groups and health outcomes and, importantly, translation to best practices for equitable design within the space of mental and behavioral intervention research.