Erin O’Flaherty, Miss UCF 2013, won the Miss Missouri title last weekend and will now represent that state in the Miss America Pageant.

Flaherty, 23, owns and operates a boutique in Chesterfield, Missouri. She earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting in 2014.

She said she took a couple years off from pageant competition but decided to try in her last year of age eligibility for the Miss America Pageant, which will be in September in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Her pageant platform has always been suicide prevention, a topic dear to her because she had a friend in high school who committed suicide. While at UCF, O’Flaherty also was a columnist for the UCF Forum opinion series. One of her columns, explained why she is involved in suicide prevention.

And to read a Q&A about her after she won the Miss UCF title, click here.