UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) is thrilled to announce Jennifer Kowalkowski is the winner of the 2025 Lloyd Prize for Innovative Health Research.
Kowalkowski is an assistant professor of nursing at the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing. She is also an affiliate faculty member with the Tressa Nese and Helen Diskevich Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, the Population Research Institute, and the Rock Ethics Institute.
Kowalkowski said, “I am truly honored to be selected as the recipient of the Lloyd Prize and the support to pursue this important work.”
Her project, “Developing a Conceptual Model to Describe How Farmers Experience Occupational Stress”, will build on her previous work of addressing mental health and well-being among rural and agricultural populations.
“Farmers are considered the backbone of the global economy as producers of the food, fiber, and fuel that sustains our world,” said Kowalkowski.
According to Kowalkowski, despite mental health programming and interventions targeted at and tailored for the farming sector, the rates for both depression and suicide remain higher among this group than the general population. Farm owner-operators, those who own the farming business and make decisions about the farming operation, experience a greater burden from depression and suicide than other farm workers.
The aim of Kowalkowski’s study is to develop a conceptual model that explains how farm owner-operators experience and respond to occupational stress. The overall goal of the project is to identify the pathways through which occupational stress may impact mental well-being among farm owner-operators which is critical for developing interventions to reduce the burden of depression and suicide.
“Having grown up on a dairy farm, I feel we have an urgent need to address the suicide epidemic among farmers,” said Kowalkowski.
The Lloyd Prize for Innovative Research is funded by an endowment that provides an annual prize that includes funds for salary and research support. Tom Lloyd was a faculty member of the College of Medicine from 1975 to 2021, spanning a 46-year career. His philanthropy reflects his value of lifelong learning and his determination to try to make the world a better place.
The Lloyd Prize will rotate through the following colleges at Penn State annually: the College of Medicine, the Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, the College of Health and Human Development, the Eberly College of Science, the College of Engineering, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, the College of the Liberal Arts, and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
“We are immensely grateful to Dr. Lloyd for his investment in research and are thrilled that this funding will enable Dr. Kowalkowski to continue her critical research on mental health issues among rural and agricultural populations,” said Deborah Ehrenthal, director of SSRI.
Please visit SSRI’s website for more information or subscribe to SSRI’s biweekly newsletter for updates. SSRI enables and facilitates research that addresses critical human and social challenges at the local, national, and international levels. The institute supports over 60 co-funded faculty positioned within nine colleges and over 500 faculty across nine campuses via its affiliate program and various funding mechanisms.