The University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions’ PHHP Days is an annual celebration of research from the undergraduate to postdoctoral level, featuring oral and poster presentations from more than 200 students. Within the two-day event, the Pillar Talks series serves as a platform for faculty to share their research, insights, discoveries and innovations across the college’s mission areas of education, research, service and clinical work. These brief, TED Talk-style talks are an opportunity for every member of the college to come together, learn from each other and showcase the remarkable scholarship advancing public health and health science.
Ahead of PHHP Days 2026, taking place April 15 and 16, speakers will share sneak peeks of their talks and what they hope listeners will learn.
Joy Gabrielli, Ph.D., is a clinical child psychologist and an associate professor in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology.
What is your primary focus in PHHP and why does it interest you?
I’m very interested in pathways of risk and resilience with a focus on prevention and intervention for youth risk behavior in adolescence such as substance use, risky sex and risky online scenarios. I have a longstanding interest in early life adversity and outcomes. Youth digital engagement, exposures to mature media content, AI problematic behaviors — tech is moving faster than science is moving, so we need to promote healthy digital engagement.
What is the theme of your pillar talk?
Technology and child health: the good, the bad and the ugly. We need to do better at identifying both good and bad pathways and promoting evidence-based interventions and policy recommendations.
Why do you want to share this topic?
As a parent of a young person, of course I have tremendous personal investment in helping our community on the whole become a safer space for our kids. My daughter is 13, and while she doesn’t have her own cell phone, when things happen I want to protect her from, I may not be able to, because she’s seeing those things on other kids’ phones. Even if you’re a fairly protective parent, you can’t protect against everything.
What do you hope the audience takes away from your talk?
I hope it elevates recognition of both the good and the bad that can come from youth technology engagement. How can we use technology for child health promotion while also having some conversations and advocacy around prevention of risk? How can we create a context and culture of digital citizenship, as well as provide adults with better awareness of the influence of technology on children and adolescents?
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your work or your upcoming pillar talk?
I’ve been thinking a lot about why I’m here at UF — why here, why now, why this place, specifically? Not many clinical psychology departments are nested in colleges of public health, but mental health is public health. At PHHP, I have collaborators in epidemiology, speech-language pathology, biostatistics. The topics I’m working on are incredibly relevant to public health, so I’m very grateful to be in this space.