Shernell Elibox, PhD, MA, is an Afro-Caribbean clinical mental health counselor who received her PhD in Counselor Education from The Pennsylvania State University in 2023. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor and Clinical Coordinator of the Community and Trauma Counseling Program at Thomas Jefferson University. Shernell spent three years as the first and only Clinical Suicidologist Counsellor on her home Island of Saint Lucia. During her tenure working for Saint Lucia’s Department of Health and Wellness, she sat on the island’s clinical team and was responsible for designing and implementing many mental health and suicide prevention and intervention campaigns. During her doctoral studies, she served as the Lead Clinic Supervisor of the Edwin L. Herr Counseling Training Clinic at Penn State and was instrumental in updating crisis counseling and training policy and procedures both for in-person and tele-health counseling. Shernell’s research investigates the relationship between intersectionality and suicidality and focuses on cultural humility in suicide intervention and prevention. Most recently, she undertook a 122,465-participant study investigating suicidality among college students of color. She brings her expertise as a suicidologist and international clinician and scholar into the classroom to enrich the experiences of the students she serves.
Shernell Elibox, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor
Clinical Coordinator, Community & Trauma Counseling
Assistant Professor
Clinical Coordinator, Community & Trauma Counseling
Biography
Research & Scholarship
Shortly after completing my master’s in counseling, I held a dual role within the Department of Health and Wellness of my home island, Saint Lucia. My focus during that time as the first and only counselor attached to our National Health Helpline, the country’s ‘suicide helpline’ was to engage in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention work on a national level. By virtue of my role, I assisted in the training and development of the National Helpline staff and compiled monthly statistics for Saint Lucia’s Department of Epidemiology, the Chief Medical Officer and the Minister of Health and Wellness. During my time practicing as a clinical suicidologist, I witnessed first-hand how critically framing data can help mobilize both private and public sectors to respond to suicidality with urgency. This is when I began to value the role of research in addressing mental health. My second call to research in suicidality within the counseling field also happened during my time in this role. I became astutely aware of the lack of a prioritization research on suicide in the counseling field, when looking for research to frame and guide my clinical practice. My research agenda has been largely shaped by the major gap in the counseling field, on suicidality. Further investigation led to an even more troubling realization – the existing literature took a dominant culture approach to researching and understanding suicidality. This has moved the needle of my research to focus on historically marginalized and oppressed persons and suicidality.
Leadership & Advocacy
Leadership to me is rooted in vulnerability and bravery, and a use of my proximity to power to influence and effect change that benefits those who have been historically marginalized and oppressed. This approach has resonated with the students I have served as they have continued to express that they feel seen, heard, and supported by me. Historically underrepresented students have consistently communicated over the years that they are grateful for my willingness to advocate with and for them in our department. I have embraced that my role as a counselor educator does not end at raising awareness but includes mentorship and providing avenues to move awareness into practice at the micro and macro-levels