Kristen Koci

Biography

Kristen Koci is a PhD student in Sociology at USU. Kristen received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology at Sam Houston State University in Texas. At USU, Kristen is currently working on a project with Dr. Jessica Ulrich-Schad exploring mental health and suicide trends, as well as individual and community-level contributing factors to poor mental health and suicide deaths, in rural natural resource dependent communities in Utah. For this project, Kristen will conduct in-depth interviews with residents and leaders in four rural natural resource dependent communities in Utah. Previously, she has worked with Dr. Courtney Flint as a research assistant on projects including the Water Reuse Project (studying perceptions of water reuse in Utah), the Utah Wellbeing Project (surveying Utahns about their perceived wellbeing), and a research project exploring perceptions of children’s health and safety risks posed by irrigation water in Northern Utah. Kristen’s present interests lie in community, natural resource dependency, [rural] mental health and access to mental healthcare, community development, and social inequality.