Education
- Ph.D. 2015 – University of Rhode Island – School Psychology
- M.A. 2013 – University of Rhode Island – Psychology
Areas of Expertise
- Suicide Prevention
- Promoting Mental Health in Schools
- Digital Therapeutics and Interventions
- School Connectedness
- School Psychology
Background
Marraccini specializes in promoting the mental health and well-being of students and preventing health risk behaviors. Trained as a school psychologist, she became interested in supporting high-risk adolescents to prevent suicide and other health risk behaviors during her internship at a rural high school. Recognizing a critical need to better support these students, she sought out advanced training in suicide assessment research through a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Currently, Marraccini is an Implementation Research Fellow through the Implementation Science Research Institute at Washington University of St. Louis
Her passion for teaching and mentoring school psychology students stems from her commitment to promoting social justice in school systems. By partnering with students, Marraccini aims to support developing school psychologists to act as agents of change using evidence-based practice to promote student success and equity within schools.
Research
Marraccini’s avenue of research aims to promote child and adolescent mental health in the context of their daily lives – school settings. Her research is focused on preventing suicide and supporting adolescents with mental health challenges by: (A) identifying school-related modifiable protective and risk factors and accounting for underlying mechanisms for risk; and (B) developing and evaluating interventions informed by school context for preventing youth suicide and promoting mental health. She is particularly interested in characterizing adolescent school experiences following psychiatric hospitalization, the application of school (academic and social) context to inform hospital interventions and school supports, intelligent use of technology to enhance prevention and intervention efforts, and partnering with individuals with lived experiences to co-design and develop solutions to the everyday challenges facing youth. Currently, Marraccini is developing a virtual reality intervention to supplement inpatient treatment for adolescents hospitalized for suicide-related crises and leading research that partners with youth to develop and disseminate therapeutic skills by way of social media.