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Jennifer Stuber
Associate Professor Jennifer Stuber’s research interests focus on forms of oppression including stigma and discrimination, health disparities, mental health and policy-making processes. She has studied different forms of oppression for families, using means-tested government programs for tobacco users and people living with mental illnesses.
Stuber completed her bachelor's degree in biology and society at Cornell University, served as a research assistant at the Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank, and received her doctorate from the Yale University School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy. She joined the School of Social Work because she is committed to research that brings social change and social justice to vulnerable populations. Since moving to Washington state, she has been heavily engaged in research and partnership with public mental health organizations. She has assisted these agencies with the development and evaluation of interventions designed to foster recovery, to address tobacco dependence and to improve media engagement strategies.
Stuber leads a statewide coalition designed to promote accurate media portrayals of mental illness in collaboration with the UW Department of Communications. This effort includes the development of media guidelines and education materials for journalists, including a website Mental Health Reporting.
Stuber, who lost her husband to suicide, has conducted research and informed advocacy work to improve Washington state’s readiness to address the public health problem of suicide. In 2013, she co-founded Forefront, which focuses on suicide prevention policy, education, outreach and research. In 2015, the group formed a partnership with Facebook to develop content and tools for Facebook users who may be at risk, or know someone at risk, for suicide. Since that time, Stuber and the Forefront team has engaged Washington state legislators and leaders to reduce gun-related deaths by suicide and partnered with firearms dealers and pharmacists to promote suicide prevention efforts. To find out more about Stuber's personal journey toward advocacy in the service of suicide prevention, read her Faculty Friday profile, published on July 14, 2017.
In February, 2021, Stuber announced that she would be stepping down as Forefront's director and that Larry Wright would assume the center's leadership role. Read the full story here.