Wayne State University Associate Social Work Professor Michael Kral has been elected a fellow of the American Psychological Association's Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), an honor bestowed upon APA members for "unusual and outstanding contributions or performance in community research and action." Kral was elected fellow of APA's Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology last year.

An expert in the areas of indigenous mental health, community-based participatory action research (CBPR), and ethnography, Kral has for 20 years conducted CBPR with Inuit in Arctic Canada on suicide as well as Inuit culture change, kinship, and youth resilience. He has co-edited books on suicidology, suicide in Canada, and the role of theory, philosophy, and history in psychology, and is co-editing a book on critical suicidology that will be published this year. Kral has also authored dozens of articles and book chapters and is writing a book on suicide among Inuit in Arctic Canada.

SCRA fellows are recognized for exceptional contributions that significantly advance the field of community research and action, including theory development, research, evaluation, teaching, intervention, policy development, policy implementation, advocacy, consultation, program development, public education administration, and service. Most recently, Kral co-founded an interdisciplinary suicide research group that has brought together mental health experts from across Wayne State University and the greater Detroit area to explore risk factors and interventions.

Kral, who joined the Wayne State School of Social Work faculty in Fall 2014, has a Ph.D. in medical anthropology from McGill University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. His current research priorities involve the development of interventions for Detroit's indigenous residents and research on youth well-being among the Roma/Gypsy people in the Czech Republic.