Session 2 – Social Media Outreach: Connecting or Competing?
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Series Summary
Join us for a timely and thought-provoking series exploring how community colleges can evolve their mental health and wellness strategies in an increasingly digital world. These sessions will examine the role of technology, social media, and culturally responsive practices in shaping the next generation of student mental health support.
Through real-world examples and actionable tools, participants will walk away with practical ways to reach students where they are—while staying grounded in connection, trust, and equity.
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Session Description
Instagram stories, TikTok challenges, YouTube shorts, and Discord threads have replaced flyers and list-servs as the places where today’s community-college students swap advice, vent, and look for help. More than 90 percent of college students scroll multiple platforms daily, yet colleges still struggle to translate that attention into meaningful mental health support. In this training session, we will assess how effectively campuses are meeting students where they scroll. We’ll examine what actually moves the needle for diverse students, highlighting identity-affirming storytelling, culturally familiar metaphors, and co-production principles. Along the way we’ll identify common pitfalls and map practical fixes that weave social media into a stepped-care ecosystem to better support the mental health needs of students.
Learning Objectives:
- Analyze current social-media usage patterns among community-college students to spot gaps and opportunities in your campus outreach.
- Differentiate the documented benefits and risks of social-media engagement for student mental health, and apply an equity lens to evaluate which content strategies foster connection.
- Design or refine at least one culturally-responsive and student co-created social-media initiative to advance mental health help-seeking on your campus.
Meet the Presenter
Dr. Ritchie Rubio, PhD
Dr. Ritchie Rubio, PhD, is a clinical and research psychologist, systems leader, and equity advocate with over 25 years of experience in public health, education, and mental health systems across the Philippines, United States, and New Zealand. He currently serves as Director of Practice Improvement and Analytics for the Children, Youth, and Families System of Care at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. His work focuses on advancing trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices through implementation science, evaluation, and workforce development. Clinically, he specializes in supporting immigrant and multicultural children, youth, and families using an integrative approach that includes psychodynamic, family systems, expressive arts, and cognitive-behavioral therapies. He teaches as an adjunct professor at the Wright Institute, University of San Francisco, and Pepperdine University. Dr. Rubio also trains providers nationwide and internationally on trauma-informed telehealth and culturally grounded care. His publications and presentations address racial and ethnic disparities, culturally adapted care, and trauma healing practices. He has been recognized by the American Psychological Association with the 2023 Practice Award, 2024 Leadership in Education Award, and 2024 Teaching Excellence Award. A former Ford Foundation Fellow, he completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a Child and Family emphasis at the California School of Professional Psychology. Originally from the Philippines, he immigrated to the U.S. at age 25 to pursue his doctoral studies.