Nora Sun

The Fenway Institute | Boston, MA

Community behavioral health interventions for self-harm, disordered eating, suicidality, and substance use among intersectional sexual and gender diverse populations

Nora Sun is a rising junior in Quincy House at Harvard College concentrating in Statistics. She is dedicated to advancing equitable, evidence-based interventions for individuals living with mental health challenges. She is the founder of mercuri.world, a not-for-profit initiative developing digital solutions for global mental well-being, and serves as Co-President of the Global Alliance for Medical Innovation and Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Harvard Brain. Supported by $23,000 in funding from the university, Nora has authored eight peer-reviewed publications and delivered 21 presentations at national and international academic conferences. Beyond her work in the mental health field, she is the founder of Talaria, a free-of-cost summer research apprenticeship program for high school students who identify as historically marginalized genders. For her leadership, she has received the Diana Award and the President’s Volunteer Service Lifetime Achievement Award; she has spoken at the United Nations Science Summit and was recently named to the National Youth250 Bureau.

With the support of the Presidential Public Service Fellowship, Nora will be returning to National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, which she previously worked with as a Stad Fellow, to design, implement, and evaluate programs to equip LGBTQIA+ community members with the skills to guide peers in navigating mental health challenges that disproportionately impact their communities. The materials she develops will be published by the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, available to over 300,000 unique users annually across every U.S state and 182 countries, and featured on the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health-funded Clearinghouse of training curricula and resources for staff at all state-funded Community Behavioral Health Centers in Massachusetts.