Bio
Karen Fernicola Deppa has worked with the fire service at the local, regional, state, and national levels in fire prevention advocacy, community relations, public affairs, and communications. Over the course of her career, she has developed and managed many projects to fill gaps and address needs in the fire community. These have included a program that provided grants to fire departments for conducting public fire safety education; communications, fire prevention safety campaigns, and targeted outreach efforts for the National Association of State Fire Marshals; a program for enhancing fire department community relations; an exploration of fire safety implications associated with green building design; research on the reasons behind high numbers of unknown and undetermined causes in fire incident data; and a training program for increasing firefighters’ appreciation of the need for complete and accurate incident data reporting.
Karen received a bachelor’s degree in English from Rutgers University and, in 2015, a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) from the University of Pennsylvania. She is now focused on applying the science and interventions of positive psychology proactively to help prevent behavioral health problems in emergency responders.
Karen is co-author, along with Dr. Judith Saltzberg, of the e-book entitled "Resilience Training for Firefighters: An Approach to Prevent Behavioral Health Problems", part of the SpringerBriefs in Fire Series. It provides the background and justification for a new approach to addressing behavioral health issues in the first responder community.
As principal of PilotLight Resilience Resources, LLC, Karen's mission is to apply the science and methods of positive psychology to non-clinical populations (individuals, groups, and organizations) for the purpose of developing and improving resilience, enhancing life satisfaction, building psychological resources, cultivating mental toughness, and proactively preventing behavioral health problems.
