John R. Blosnich is an associate professor and director of the Center for LGBTQ+ Health Equity at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. His primary area of expertise is disparities in suicide risk and prevention among high-risk populations, with a specific emphasis on social determinants of health.

Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Blosnich spent nine years working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); first with the VISN2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention in Canandaigua, NY and more recently with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion in Pittsburgh, PA. At the VA, he led foundational research about transgender veterans’ health and health care utilization, with a specific focus in suicide risk, mortality, and social determinants of health. He garnered the VA’s first research award focused on transgender veterans and served on several national VA committees charged with developing guidance, clinical education, and training about veteran subgroups with high risks for suicide and adverse social determinants.

In addition to VA-supported research, he has earned competitive awards from foundations and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Among these are his work on efforts to address the lack of sexual orientation and gender identity data in mortality surveillance. As a 2021 recipient of an NIH New Innovator Award, he is spearheading research into non-clinical suicide prevention in partnership with “industries of disruption”, which is a novel conceptualization of community-based professionals whose work focuses on life disruptions (e.g., divorce, financial problems, unemployment), but who generally lack knowledge and training in suicide prevention..

To reference the work of John R. Blosnich online, we ask that you directly quote their work where possible and attribute it to "John R. Blosnich, faculty at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work” (LINK: https://dworakpeck.usc.edu)