Megan Smith: What Happens When A Community Chooses Connection Over Crisis
From On a First Name Basis by Chris Saunders
January 14, 2026 · 1h 5m · Season 1 · Episode 7
About this episode
Dr. Megan Smith discusses how improving community conditions can enhance youth mental health.
What if the fastest way to improve youth mental health isn’t more crisis response, but better community conditions? We sit down with Dr. Megan Smith, associate professor at Boise State and founding director of Communities for Youth, to explore how upstream prevention makes thriving the norm and not the exception. From her move to Boise for family and purpose to the early classroom lessons that shaped her research, Megan connects the dots between lived experience, data, and real results. We t...
People in this episode
Host: Chris Saunders
Guest: Dr. Megan Smith
Topics covered
- youth mental health
- community connection
- upstream prevention
- education
- research
Keywords
- youth mental health
- community
- prevention
- Boise State
- research
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Boise State, Communities for Youth
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