With B.A.s in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Southern Mississippi and an interest in social psychology, Kelli Pribanic arrived at UW in 2005 ready to research cultural and social variations in mental health, particularly in Latin America. She traveled to Guatemala in the summer of 2006 to conduct research on traumatic stress in post-war Guatemala. However, her interests soon rerouted to her native Mississippi Gulf Coast, which was in its first year of recovery from Hurricane Katrina. She acquired data from a crisis counseling organization named Mississippi Project Recovery, which was delivering free post-Katrina mental healthcare to Mississippi residents. She wrote her master's thesis on mental health disparities in post-disaster distress, as well as social inequities in access to mental healthcare and disaster recovery resources. After working for the Wyoming School-University Partnership non-profit organization, Kelli returned to Mississippi in 2008 to work with a non-profit directly involved in Katrina recovery. As Coordinator for the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center's Education & Outreach and Hurricane Relief Programs, she served as an educator and advocate for fair housing rights. She performed intake and referral for Gulf Coast residents in need of housing and other post-Katrina resources, tested for discriminatory rental practices, expanded the center's outreach to the growing Hispanic community, and negotiated with mortgage lenders on behalf of homeowners in threat of foreclosure due to Hurricane Katrina and the 2009 housing crisis. She graduated from UW with her Masters' degree in the Fall, 2009. Kelli now works as an investigator with an international legal consulting firm based in Mississippi. In this role, she performs research related to asbestos litigation in personal injury suits. She currently lives in Moss Point, MS, but is eagerly plotting a return to the Rocky Mountain West.
