Student-athletes' mental health took center stage Wednesday at the NCAA Convention in Phoenix.
Hundreds of attendees filled the room for the first of the Convention's four featured education sessions, which included a panel discussion focused on implementing mental health best practices by creating healthy environments that support student-athlete mental health and well-being.
Hosted by NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline, the panel featured Laura Erickson-Schroth, chief medical officer at The JED Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to protect the mental health of teenagers and prevent suicide; Peggy Davis, associate vice president for intercollegiate athletics at Virginia State, where she also has served as women's basketball head coach; and Alisia (Giac-Thao) Tran, a professor at Arizona State who heads the Tran Ethnic and Minority Psychology and Experiences Lab. (See full bios below)
Recognizing that risk and protective factors for mental health occur at many levels —individual, team, athletics, campus and societal — panelists provided multilevel perspectives on ways to create healthy environments that normalize seeking mental health care, address inclusion and belonging, and foster student-athlete experiences of personal growth, self-acceptance and positive relationships with others.
The discussion
The panelists
Peggy Davis, Associate Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, Virginia State
In her 20th year at the helm of the Virginia State athletics department, Peggy Davis has guided the Trojans to more than 20 NCAA Division II tournament appearances and 26 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship titles. The Trojans also have seen success in the classroom, recently posting the highest graduation rate and Academic Success Rate in school history. Virginia State was recognized in 2015 with the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence and in 2020 received the NCAA Division II Award of Excellence.
While at Virginia State, Davis has served as women's basketball head coach, associate athletics director and senior woman administrator. Davis came to Virginia State from Angelo State, where she served as the women's basketball head coach. Before that, she was the women's basketball head coach at her alma mater, Howard Payne. Davis also earned a master's degree from Tarleton State.
Laura Erickson-Schroth, Chief Medical Officer, The JED Foundation
Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth is the chief medical officer for The JED Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to protect the mental health of teenagers and prevent suicide by equipping America's young adults with the skills and support they need to grow into healthy, thriving adults. Erickson-Schroth is committed to improving mental health through education and resource creation. She provides guidance on how individuals, families, schools, communities, media and youth-serving organizations can take actions to protect mental health and prevent suicide. She also ensures that all content provided by JED is evidence-based.
Previously, Erickson-Schroth provided crisis intervention and mental health support to patients in New York City emergency rooms, including as an attending psychiatrist and associate professor in the Columbia comprehensive psychiatric emergency program. Her career has focused on LGBTQ mental health, and she continues to see clients at Hetrick-Martin Institute for LGBTQIA+ Youth. Erickson-Schroth obtained her medical degree from Dartmouth. She completed her psychiatry residency at New York University, a public psychiatry fellowship at Columbia and a consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowship at the Mount Sinai Health System.
Alisia (Giac-Thao) Tran, Associate Professor, Arizona State
Alisia (Giac-Thao) Tran is an associate professor in the counseling and counseling psychology program at Arizona State's College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. She heads the Tran Ethnic and Minority Psychology and Experiences Lab. Her broad research interests are in minority equity, mental health and development. Her current research focus is on student-athlete mental health, as well as socioeconomic disparities and financial stressors. Other major research focuses include discrimination, ethnic-racial or cultural socialization, and ethnic minority psychology. Her research draws on methodological approaches from counseling psychology, social psychology, neuropsychology and cognitive psychology, and public health. Her clinical interests are in pediatric neuropsychology and psychology. Her advocacy work is based in local and national Asian American communities and organizations, as well as the Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association.Â
Tran completed her doctoral training and clinical internship at Minnesota. She has been selected as a 2021 APA Minority Fellowship Program Early Career Awardee for research, 2018 Asian American Psychological Association Early Career Research awardee, the 2017 Arizona Psychological Association Faculty of the Year, a 2014 APA Minority Fellowship Psychology Summer Institute fellow and a 2013 Division 17 Leadership Academy member.
