APLU Honors Kennesaw State University for Public Impact Research Efforts

Philadelphia, PA – The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today named Kennesaw State University the winner of its 2025 Public Impact Research Award for its work to support the behavioral health of service members and first responders.

“We are thrilled to highlight Kennesaw State’s efforts to promote the mental and behavioral health of service members and first responders,” said APLU President Waded Cruzado. “These extraordinary individuals are vital to keeping us safe and healthy, but all too often they lack access to the care they need to thrive amid incredibly demanding roles. Kennesaw State’s work has a demonstrated impact on service members and first responders’ wellbeing not just in Georgia, but in states across the country.”

Suicide disproportionately affects populations with high occupational stress, exposure to trauma, and access to lethal means. Two to three times as many first responders die by suicide as are killed in the line of duty. Similarly, at least seventeen veterans die by suicide every day, a staggering figure that highlights the enduring impact of service-related trauma and transition stress.

Kennesaw State University founded the Center for the Advancement of Military and Emergency Services Research (AMES) in 2021 to meet the urgent behavioral health needs of Georgia’s first responders and military personnel. Quickly recognizing that these needs are national in scope, AMES has expanded its collaborative network and program reach to nine states and Puerto Rico within just four years.

AMES focuses on: developing data-informed tools to assess and promote wellness; designing and implementing proactive strategies that reduce risk factors for suicide and increase access to care, and providing training and systems-based approaches to enhancing resilience and psychological readiness.

In just four years, the AMES Center faculty has built and sustained research collaborations
across nine states and Puerto Rico, engaging with over 40 governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations. Most notably, AMES programs have achieved measurable outcomes in community-facing agencies, including up to 46% reductions in suicidality among
partnering police agencies, demonstrating the real-world impact of its evidence-based programs.

Since 2021, the AMES Research Center has produced over 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and
book chapters and secured over $10 million in competitive external funding. In addition to creating and implementing evidence-based programs, AMES Center collaborators have cocreated and lead the annual “Let’s Connect” statewide suicide prevention summit, convening hundreds of key stakeholder organizations annually to drive systemic change and
disseminate the latest research directly into communities.

The APLU Public Impact Research Award recognizes an institution that has implemented one or more impactful Public Impact Research (PIR) efforts that have produced exceptional outcomes.

Public Impact Research is a broad term encompassing multi-disciplinary research, community-engaged research, research grand challenges, research-practice partnerships, participatory research, translational and use-inspired research, co-production, and other approaches. An outside group of Public Impact Research experts assessed applications for the award.