Speakers

Soumya Palreddy, PhD, is a National Trainer, anti-bias anti-racism educator and licensed psychologist. Dr. Palreddy has trained thousands of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Instructors and First Aiders over the last six years and currently provides consultation and mentoring to MHFA Instructors in a variety of settings. Bringing warmth and energy, she provides training and promotes transformative change in the areas of mental health literacy, health care inequities, centering anti-racism, leadership development and supervision. Currently, Palreddy is a National Trainer for Mental Health First Aid (teen, youth, adult), a medical consultant for the Social Security Administration, and a curriculum developer for nationally recognized mental health public education programs and train-the-trainers.

www.soumyapalreddyconsulting.com

www.linkedin.com/in/soumya-palreddy-phd

Jill Kluesner, MA, CRC, is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, National Trainer and public health programming consultant. She has 15+ years of experience working as a provider, advocate, educator, published author and instructional designer. In the state of Iowa, she is revered as a leader in community mental health education, as evidenced by creating the path for increasing statewide mental health literacy efforts, providing 200+ Mental Health First Aid courses.

Kluesner has extensive experience in advancing change within the local and national healthcare landscape. Traveling across the United States, she serves as a National Trainer for the National Council for Behavioral Health, providing train-the-trainer programs in Mental Health First Aid. She has extensive experience providing evidence-based behavioral health trainings for K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, corporations, adult and pediatric medical and behavioral health providers, child welfare programs and faith communities.

Partnering with the University of Iowa, Kluesner has been an integral part of the redesign of the statewide Peer Support Specialist and Family Peer Support Specialist training curricula. In addition to curriculum development and redesign, Kluesner provides training program evaluations to monitor and ensure quality programming and fidelity.

Kluesner completed her undergraduate work at Iowa State University and her graduate work in Rehabilitation Counseling and Public Health at the University of Iowa.