Meet the Speakers

Suicide is the biggest killer of those under 35 in the UK. In memory of their young daughters – Sophie, Beth and Emily – who took their own lives, three dads set out on a 300 mile journey across Britain, from the windswept Lakeland fells and Peak District dales to the open plains of the Eastern fens. Putting one foot in front of the other, they captured the hearts of the nation; laughing together, crying together, fighting to be heard. By raising awareness, they hope they can help prevent other families from being devastated by suicide.

Director of the Center for Health Policy & Health Services Research and Director of Research, Behavioral Health Services at Henry Ford Health, Dr. Ahmedani’s research focuses on health services and interventions for individuals with mental health and substance use conditions, with special interest and expertise in suicide prevention. In addition to his leadership role with MI Mind, he is the Henry Ford Health Site-PI for the NIMH-funded Mental Health Research Network and the Health Systems Node of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network. He is PI/Co-PI for two large, multi-site studies on suicide prevention. These studies examine healthcare use patterns before suicide and evaluation of the Zero Suicide model. Dr. Ahmedani serves on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Suicide Prevention Commission, working with state departments, agencies and nonprofit organizations to research the causes and underlying factors of suicide in Michigan.

Jennifer Boggs is a Research Investigators at Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research in Denver, Colorado. Her research interests include studying population health approaches to suicide prevention, lethal means safety, and mental health services delivery. Dr. Boggs received doctoral training through the University of Colorado’s Health Services Research program in biostatistics and econometric methods with large observational datasets as well as cost-effectiveness analysis.  Prior to that, she trained in clinical social work and qualitative methods through the Master of Social Work program at the University of Denver. Therefore, she has a natural affinity towards mixed methodologies. 

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“As a mental health services researcher, I use my training in qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate both the effectiveness of mental health interventions and implementation factors that determine feasibility for implementation.  I am particularly interested in suicide prevention interventions that have the potential for population-level dissemination.”

David W. Covington, LPC, MBA is CEO and President of RI International (d/b/a for Recovery Innovations, Inc.). He is a behavioral health innovator, entrepreneur, and storyteller. He is also a partner in Behavioral Health Link, founder of the Five Lanes Crisis Partners family of companies and Crisis Now Academy consulting and training business, producer of the Moving America’s Soul on Suicide film series and founder of the international initiatives Crisis Talk and Hope Inc. Stories. David also hosts and curates the popular weekly 988 “Crisis Jam” Learning Community in partnership with SAMHSA and NASMHPD.

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A licensed professional counselor, Covington received an MBA from Kennesaw State University and an MS from The University of Memphis. He previously served as vice president at Magellan Health responsible for executive and clinical operations of the $750 million Arizona contract. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC), established in 2017 in accordance with the 21st Century Cures Act to report to Congress on advances in behavioral health.

Dr. Ian Dawe is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a psychiatrist in the Mental Health Program at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, ON. Working in collaboration with Trillium’s senior leadership team, its service users and their families, as well as its medical and allied health professionals, he is focused on co-creating a new kind of addiction and mental health care – one that prioritizes personalization, coordination and enablement. Dr. Dawe completed medical school at Memorial University of Newfoundland and a residency in psychiatry, two years of fellowship training (Suicide Studies, Emergency Psychiatry, and Mental Health Systems Research), and a Masters degree in Health Administration, all at the University of Toronto. As an Fellow and an Investigator within Trillium Health Partners’ Institute for Better Health, his clinical and research areas of interest include recovery, tele-mental health and virtual care services, suicide and suicidal behaviors, quality and patient safety, health advocacy, and the design and evaluation of mental health delivery systems. He served as the Chair of the Ontario Hospital Association’s Suicide Prevention Standards Taskforce (2014-6,) a diverse panel of researchers, academics, clinicians and lived experience experts with a mandate from the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to focus on establishing best practice, evidence based standards to guide the care for at-risk people in all of Ontario’s 151 hospitals. He has been called a “full scaler” and a “top influencer” as part of Zero Suicide International, a healthcare movement that believes no one should die alone and in despair. He has acted as principle or co-investigator in clinical trials and has authored numerous articles and reports on mental health care. He is a frequent invited lecturer with the Bell Let’s Talk campaign on topics including suicide prevention, mindfulness, interprofessional recovery-oriented care and workplace mental health and has presented his findings at a wide variety of provincial, national and international seminars, conferences and symposia. Formerly the Physician in Chief of Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (2011-2016,) Dr Dawe was the Mental Health and Addictions Physician Lead for the Central East Local Health Integration Network (2014-2016) providing expert advice to the CE-LHIN CEO and its Senior Directors on performance and improvement opportunities in mental health systems within Ontario. Dr Dawe was also the founding Medical Director of Toronto’s Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Alliance (2008-2011) and was the Medical Director of the Psychiatric Emergency Service at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto (2003-2011.) He was a Research Associate with both the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St Michael’s Hospital and the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg Chair in Suicide Studies at the University of Toronto from 2003 through 2011. He is also the immediate past Chair (2012-2014) of Ontario’s Clinical Expert Committee on Autism. As a governor, he has previously sat as a member of the Boards of Directors of the Ontario Telemedicine Network, Peer Support Accreditation and Certification (Canada) and as an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of both the Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health and Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences. As a systems consultant he has worked with many addiction and mental health organizations in Ontario helping improve integration, value and quality.

Dr. Goldstein Grumet is Vice President for Suicide Prevention Strategy and Director of the Zero Suicide Institute at the Education Development Center (EDC). Dr. Goldstein Grumet integrates comprehensive suicide prevention approaches across sectors, settings, and ages and delivers solutions that address shared risk factors to improve long-term mental health and well-being for individuals. She has provided strategic guidance for the establishment and evolution of the Zero Suicide framework since its launch in 2012 and leads the development of the resources that enable the effective implementation and dissemination of this framework throughout health care systems. She translates complex topics into engaging and impactful resources for health care leaders, providers, community leaders, technology partners, and others. Dr. Goldstein Grumet has expertise in behavioral health transformation, state and local community suicide prevention, quality improvement, school mental health, and the use of evidence-based practices for suicide care. She has collaborated on numerous grants and publications about systems-based approaches to suicide prevention and is a sought-after speaker. Dr. Goldstein Grumet has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The George Washington University and lives in Maryland, USA.

Mr. Abdullah Al Harun is the focal point of the Community Mental Health Programme of Action on Disability and Development International (ADD International), working in its’ Bangladesh chapter. Currently, he is managing a community-based mental health and suicide prevention project for children and young people in marginalised communities under the Bridging the Gaps programme with a consortium and collaborative partnership in Bangladesh and advocacy with the government as well.

Mr. Harun is a mental health and suicide first aider, mental health social worker, and mental health and suicide prevention policy analyst and advocate. With expertise in disability and development, he has been working for the last twenty years to protect the rights and inclusive development of people with mental health and psychosocial disabilities. He obtained master’s degrees in public policies and governance, management, and a postgraduate degree in development planning. He received training on disability-inclusive development, mental health, and suicide prevention first aid. He is an active member of different professional bodies, including IASP, the Global Mental Health Action Network, the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), Commonwealth People’s Forum etc.

Dan Joyce researches how data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning can be applied in mental health to improve how care is delivered across primary- and secondary-healthcare.  Before moving to the University of Liverpool and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in 2022, he worked at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust as a consultant psychiatrist in Early Intervention for Psychosis, clinical trial delivery and as a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry working on applications of statistical and machine learning for quantifying and measuring clinical states and utilizing these methods to develop deployable technology for clinical decision support.  

Nav is Professor of Psychiatry and Population Health at the University of Manchester, UK and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.  He has spent the last 25 years researching suicidal behaviour, particularly its causes, treatment and prevention.  He has led committees for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK including those developing guidelines for how all clinical staff should help people after self-harm.  He sits on the main advisory group on suicide for the Department of Health in England and directs national quality improvement work to prevent suicide.  He is the lead author of Suicide Prevention (3rd Edition, Oxford University Press) and has published over 350 academic papers.   Nav was the 2021 recipient of the American Association of Suicidology Louis I. Dublin Award for lifetime achievement in suicide prevention and the 2021 International Association of Suicide Prevention Stengel Award for outstanding research. 

Dr. Khan is a public health practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in design, development, implementation, and evaluation of health programs in Pakistan and globally. He has led programs that address pressing population health needs. His approach to design and development of global health programs has been through the analysis of existing evidence, understanding the barriers on the demand and supply side, and prioritizing cost effectiveness in program implementation. He has played a pivotal role in the preparation of burden of disease estimates at national, regional and global level working with academia, research institutes, and foundations. More recently, his work has focused on addressing health systems delivery challenges in an environment of triple burden of disease in countries like Pakistan, where RMNCH indicators are not improving, the communicable along with non-communicable diseases are on the rise, and nutrition and mental health have little space in the delivery packages. Dr. Khan has prepared reports, and advocacy documents that have helped in strategizing quality health care programs and worked very closely with the ministries of health in the provinces in Pakistan and other countries of Africa and Asia. He has presented and shared his work at national and international conferences and meetings and has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.

Dr. Chan Lai Fong, MD, MMedPsych, MSc, is Professor of Psychiatry & Suicide Prevention, & Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). Dr. Chan received the 2017 International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP) De Leo Fund Award. Dr. Chan is the current 3 rd Vice-President of the International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP) and a member of the Malaysian National Technical Working Group on Suicide Prevention. Dr Chan is also a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Mental Health, Brain Health and Substance Use (STAG-MNS), as well as the MQ Mental Health Science Council

Keisha Carisse P. Mangalili, MD is currently the Program Manager for Nutrition, Food Security, and Universal Healthcare at Angat Buhay (Angat Pinas, Inc.), a non-government organization in the Philippines. She graduated from the Intarmed (Integrated Liberal Arts and Medicine) program of the University of the Philippines in 2019, and has been dedicating herself to medical practice and participated in various COVID-19 response initiatives. She is a founding and core team member of the Bayanihan E-Konsulta program launched under the Office of the Vice President in April 2021.
 

As the Program Manager for Nutrition, Food Security, and Universal Healthcare, she provides oversight for Angat Buhay’s health and nutrition initiatives across different communities.

David McDaid is Associate Professorial Research Fellow in Health Policy and Health Economics at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The primary focus of his work is on using economic arguments to support investment in mental health and wellbeing promotion, self-harm, suicide and mental illness prevention within and beyond the health sector. With more than 25 years of research experience and over 350 publications he has advised many national governments and international agencies. This has included work to assess intersectoral actions to promote health and wellbeing for the World Health Organization as well as reviewing mental health promotion and prevention policy and actions for the OECD. He was an advisor on mental health reform for the Office of Finnish Prime Minister and has delivered numerous international keynote lectures on health economics, mental and public health policy issues. He has been coordinator of the Mental Health Economics European Network, a member of the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee since 2007 and in February 2018 appeared before the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Select Committee to give expert evidence on the economic impacts of childhood adversity and poor wellbeing.

Richard McKeon Ph.D., MPH received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona, and a Master of Public Health in Health Administration from Columbia University. He has spent most of his career working in community mental health, including 11 years as director of a psychiatric emergency service and four years as Associate Administrator/Clinical Director of a hospital based community mental health center in Newton, New Jersey.  In 2001, he was awarded an American Psychological Association Congressional Fellowship and worked in the United States Senate for Sen. Paul Wellstone, covering health and mental health policy issues. He spent five years on the Board of the American Association of Suicidology as Clinical Division Director and has also served on the Board of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

He is currently Senior Advisor in the SAMHSA 988 and Crisis Office after serving for 12 years as Chief for the Suicide Prevention Branch in the Center for Mental Health Services where he oversaw all branch suicide prevention activities, including the Garrett Lee Smith State/Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention, and Campus Suicide Prevention grant programs, the Zero Suicide initiative, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, and the Native Connections program. He has worked with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline since its inception in 2005, including establishing the foundation for 988 as the national suicide prevention number. In 2008, he was appointed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to the Secretary’s Blue Ribbon Work Group on Suicide Prevention. In 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to the Department of Defense Task Force on Suicide Prevention in the Military. He served on the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Task Force that revised the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services project management team coordinating the 2024 revision of the U.S. National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. He also participated in the development of World Health Organization’s first World Suicide Prevention Report.

In 2023 he was awarded the American Association for Suicidology Dublin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Suicide Prevention. Also in 2023, he was a finalist for the Samuel J Heyman Service to America Medal for his contribution to the establishment of 988 as the new United States national suicide prevention and mental health crisis number.

Dr Sangeeta Mishra works at Ministry of Health and Population as an Additional secretary and Director General of Department of health services in Nepal, where her work focuses on planning and implementation of public health programs in the country, quality assurance of health services and oversight of national and international health care programs in Nepal.

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She has extensive experience in Public health especially Sexual and reproductive health including design, service delivery, and in rolling out of reproductive health programs and community-based interventions. She has played an instrumental role in the resource mobilization and execution of prevention and treatment programs for communicable and Non-Communicable diseases including mental health. She has played key leadership roles in apex health organizations of Nepal and has also worked as the first female spokesperson of the Ministry of Health. She is also serving as a member of Senior thematic expert panel at Policy Research Institute, a think tank of the Government of Nepal.

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A national of Nepal, Dr Sangeeta holds a doctorate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Masters in Public health from Johns Hopkins University. As a former Fulbright scholar, she is a strong advocate of woman’s health and is passionate about gender issues and health equity.

Claire has worked for the NHS for 40 years and is a registered nurse. After holding positions in hospital, community, substance misuse and learning disabilities services, she joined Central and North West London NHS FT as Director of Nursing and Operations in 1999. In 2007, she became the Chief Executive, a position she still holds today.

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In June 2016 she was also appointed as National Mental Health Director at NHSE and has been working with the national mental health team to deliver the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and more recently NHS England’s Long-Term Plan.

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In July 2019 she took on responsibility as the Director with oversight of NHSE’s Learning Disability and Autism programme.

Sue Murray OAM is a health promotion advocate who is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of all people.
 

Throughout her career she has focused on health for the community having led several organisations focused on education, cancer control and suicide prevention. She has expertise in communications, education and organisational development.
 

Sue began her role in advocacy for the prevention of suicide with Australia’s peak organisation, Suicide Prevention Australia. She now leads the Zero Suicide Institute of Australasia which aims to support the healthcare system understand and more effectively manage those who are vulnerable to suicidal behaviour.

Dr. Sandersan Onie is a Research Fellow at Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, and holds an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. He specialises in systems-level suicide prevention and advises on suicide prevention strategies in over 30 countries globally. Notably, he led the Indonesian national suicide prevention strategy, and after leading the world's first unified religious statement on mental health and suicide at G20 2022, he successfully led the advocacy for the enshrining of suicide prevention in Indonesia's health legislation in 2023. He also consults for and collaborates with the WHO Headquarters, Google, TikTok, Reddit and Meta on suicide and safety, and sits on the International Association for Suicide Prevention Council of National Representatives as Indonesia's national representative. 

Joe was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in September 2012. During his tenure, he has led a significant expansion of the organisation, almost trebling it in size. This has been accompanied by significant modernisation of the estate and digital infrastructure. The trust is now one of the largest specialised integrated care providers in the NHS and includes inpatient and community mental health, community physical health, and learning disability and addictions services.

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He has organised Mersey Care around the idea of pursuing Perfect Care using a series of audacious zero based goals such as zero suicides in care, zero restrictive practice, zero pressure ulcers and zero medication errors. Most notably, the trust has become internationally recognised for its work on restorative just practice to support learning in its pursuit of perfect care.

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Awarded a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at Queen’s University Belfast in 1987, he spent the next 12 years researching drug resistance in cancer and published over 50 peer review articles on this and related areas, before a career change. Prior to joining the trust, he held a series of senior NHS leadership roles as regional director (NHS North West) of strategy and commissioning and Chief Executive of a primary care trust where he developed an interest in safety and quality improvement, including establishing the influential Advancing Quality programme.

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For the past five years, he has been named one of the top 50 NHS CEOs by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) and has appeared in the HSJ100 most influential people in healthcare in the UK. He is a founder member of the Zero Suicide Alliance UK and was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year’s Honours List 2020 for his work on suicide prevention. Joe was also made an honorary professor at the University of Liverpool Institute for Population Health Sciences in March 2021.

Dr Saeed is a consultant psychiatrist of more than 26 years standing, currently working as Regional advisor, Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean of WHO.

At present, he coordinates the work on mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies within the region and leads the work on policies, legislations, treatment systems and services for  mental health and substance use problem in countries of Eastern Mediterranean region.

Dr. Ruth Riley, Senior Lecturer, University of Surrey, is a medical sociologist who uses qualitative and inter-disciplinary approaches to investigate the contexts/causes of distress and suicidality, including workplace injustices, working conditions and cultures, experienced by healthcare professionals. Her research contests neoliberal individualised approaches which pathologise healthcare professionals. Instead, her work focuses on occupational, political, systemic and cultural contexts in which staff work and how they subsequently impact on the emotional and psychological health of healthcare workers.

Her previous research explored contexts contributing to distress in General Practitioners and then junior doctors; her recent research project explored the impact of NHS staff suicide on their colleagues and teams to develop the first evidence-based postvention guidance for the NHS in England.  She is the current holder of a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award for a project titled: ‘Revisioning distress and nurse suicidality through a feminist, critical suicidology lens’, to explore contexts contributing to the higher rates of suicide in women nurses.

Steve Rotheram was elected as Labour MP for Liverpool Walton on May 7th 2015 with 25762 votes, taking 49.5% of the vote.

A bricklayer by trade, he’d set up his own company by the age of 22 and later went on to work in various capacities in the construction industry.

Having pursued further education (obtaining a BA in Construction Management and an MA in Contemporary Urban Renaissance), Steve was employed as a Business Manager by the Learning and Skills Council.

Steve progressed through the local party ranks to become a Liverpool City Councillor in 2002 and was served as Lord Mayor of Liverpool during 2008-2009.

Steve is married to Sandra, a community psychiatric nurse. The couple have three teenage children.

Julie Angerhofer Richards, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and Affiliate Assistant Investigator at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Dr. Richards has a history of personal and professional experiences that drive her passion to improve suicide care in partnership with people who provide and receive mental health care. She applies qualitative methods to inform what research questions we should be asking and how we should consider answering them. She employs statistical methods to inform practice optimization and evaluation effectiveness. 

Michael Schoenbaum (PhD in Economics, University of Michigan) is Senior Advisor for Mental Health Services, Epidemiology, and Economics in the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the US National Institute of Mental Health. He conducts analyses of public health and mental health service issues, in support of Institute decision-making; and he works to strengthen NIMH's relationships with public and private stakeholders to increase the public health impact of NIMH-supported research. His current work focuses particularly on improving and expanding prevention, identification, and treatment of suicide risk; and on wider implementation of evidence-based behavioral health interventions in real-world practice. 

Nawal Roy, founder and CEO of Holmusk, established in 2015, is a pioneering force in AI-driven healthcare. Dedicated to creating the largest real-world evidence platform for mental and behavioral health, Nawal oversees Holmusk's strategic direction. Under his leadership, Holmusk has secured multiple rounds of financing, completed two acquisitions in the U.S. and the U.K., and launched NeuroBlu, the premier source for behavioral health real-world data. Nawal curates a world-class team of clinical psychology and data science experts, driving Holmusk's mission for superior evidence in behavioral health. Beyond Holmusk, Nawal serves as a board member for Health Brains Global Initiative and as Co-chair of The Kennedy's Forum's Data and Measurement Committee since 2023. Additionally, Nawal's influence extends to the World Economic Forum, where he was a member of the Global Future Council for Mental Health in 2021-22. His multifaceted leadership embodies a commitment to advancing mental health on a global scale, through innovation, collaboration, and strategic advocacy.

Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas sees issues of suicide prevention and mental health promotion from a host of perspectives. Clinical psychologist. Mental health advocate. Faculty member. Researcher. And suicide loss survivor.

She has earned an international reputation as an entrepreneur and innovator in social change. Along the way, she’s helped establish many large-scale, gap-filling mental health efforts, including Man Therapy (www.ManTherapy.org) and National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

She has held leadership roles with the International Association of Suicide Prevention, the American Association of Suicidology, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, United Suicide Survivors International, and the Carson J Spencer Foundation. In 2016, she was invited to speak at the White House on men’s mental health.

She has won multiple awards for her advocacy including the 2015 Farberow Award from the International Association of Suicide Prevention, the 2014 Survivor of the Year from the American Association of Suicidology, the 2014 Invisible Disabilities Association Impact Honors Award, and the 2012 Alumni Master Scholar from the University of Denver.

She received her undergraduate degree in psychology and studio art from Bowdoin College, her Masters in Nonprofit Management from Regis University and her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver.

Dr Kathryn Turner is a Psychiatrist and Executive Director of Metro North Mental Health, a large Mental Health. Alcohol and Other Drug Service in Brisbane, Australia. She has had a longstanding interest in education, training, and continuous improvement of quality and safety in healthcare systems, evaluation, and a focus on culture in the workplace. Dr Turner has been involved in design and implementation of Suicide Prevention frameworks and pathways in her previous and current service with her publications have demonstrated significant positive outcomes of this work.  Dr Turner implemented a Restorative Just and Learning Culture framework into the service, providing support for consumers, carers, clinicians and the organization to heal, learn and improve following the loss of a consumer to suicide.

Becky Stoll is the Senior Vice President of Crisis Services at Centerstone, a nonprofit health system specializing in mental health and substance use disorder treatments. Stoll is responsible for leading both administrative and clinical operations for Centerstone’s multi-state footprint, including a crisis call center, a 988 crisis chat/text national back-up center, mobile crisis response teams, and crisis stabilizaton units.
 

Stoll has more than three decades of experience in crisis services, disaster mental helath, and suicide prevention and has worked at Centerstone since 1999, previously holding the positions of vice president of crisis and disaster management, director of crisis services, and crisis call center program manager. Prior to joining Centerstone, she served as the Director of Admissions, Utilization Management and Social Work at First Hospital Corporation in Nashville, Tennessee.
 

Stoll is on the 988 Crisis Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Steering Committee, American Association of Suicidology Advisory Council, and a Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Stoll’s work has been featured in Time Magazine, USA Today, The Washington Post and other major national publications.
 

Stoll is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Tennessee State University.

Dr. Ursula Whiteside is a licensed clinical psychologist, CEO of NowMattersNow.org and Clinical Faculty at the University of Washington. As a researcher, she has been awarded grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Clinically, she began her training with Dr. Marsha Linehan in 1999 and later served as a DBT-adherent research therapist on a NIMH-funded clinical trial led by Dr. Linehan. Dr. Whiteside is a group and individual certified DBT clinician. Now, she treats high-risk suicidal clients in her small private practice in Seattle using DBT and caring contacts.

Dr. Whiteside is national faculty for the Zero Suicide initiative, a practical approach to suicide prevention in health care and behavioral healthcare systems. This program was described by NPR on a segment titled “What Happens If You Try to Prevent Every Single Suicide?” She is also vice-president of United Suicide Survivors International.

As a person with Lived Experience, she strives to decrease the gap between "us and them" and to ensure that the voices of those who have been there are included in all relevant conversations: nothing about us without us.

Christopher is a dedicated professional nurse with a focus on Critical Care and Surgical Services, blending expertise with a commitment to suicide prevention and mental health, especially within the workplace. As a passionate keynote speaker, he shares inspirational insights, drawing from personal experiences to instill hope and address critical issues such as nurse suicide, healthcare worker well-being, resilience, and proactive help-seeking. Currently pursuing a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner degree (Class of 2024), he also served as the chair of a large hospital system's nursing governance council advocating for 22,000 nurses providing exceptional care to communities across the Midwest. He is actively involved in implementing the Zero Suicide Framework, is Mental Health First Aid and QPR Gatekeeper Certified, and proudly advocates for the strength of peer connection and support.

Dr Woodward has worked in mental health and suicide prevention for 25 years as a policy adviser, service developer, researcher, evaluator, and communicator.

He has specific expertise in tele-web services and crisis support, having worked with Lifeline services nationally and internationally in senior roles and on policy advocacy.

Dr Woodward has led initiatives for service innovation, especially in suicide aftercare, and the design of quality assurance for crisis lines and for non-government suicide prevention programs, including peer support and community-based programs.

He is a member of the Faculty for Zero Suicide Healthcare in Australasia and has contributed to the evaluation frameworks, monitoring, and data collection in several healthcare systems. He is an experienced evaluator and in 2019 was admitted as a Fellow of the Australian Evaluation Society.

Dr Woodward was appointed a National Mental Health Commissioner for three years from 2019, and currently is the Chair of the Advisory Board to the National Suicide Prevention Office. In 2021 he received a LIFE Award for Leadership in Suicide Prevention and in 2022 he received the UNSW Australian Mental Health Prize.

Dr Woodward has been awarded a PhD from the University of Melbourne for research on the experiences of people calling crisis lines. He holds a Masters in Social Science and Policy, a Business Degree and a Diploma in Arts/Communications.

Dr. Yarborough is a clinical psychologist and health services researcher who works to improve care and outcomes among individuals with serious mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders. She has over 20 years of experience managing the clinical and scientific oversight of research studies, including qualitative and mixed methods studies, large multisite randomized controlled trials, observational retrospective cohort studies, and implementation and process evaluations. Particularly relevant to this conference, her research includes studying health system approaches to suicide prevention including evaluating the Zero Suicide framework, measuring use of and fidelity to evidence-based suicide prevention interventions such as safety planning, the challenges of measuring suicide outcomes in health systems, and ethical and practical considerations for implementing suicide risk prediction models in clinical settings. She has also conducted studies of adolescent and adult depression treatment, adolescent eating disorders treatment, first episode psychosis, recovery from serious mental illnesses, dual recovery among people with mental illnesses and substance problems, risks associated with prescription opioid use (including abuse, misuse, overdose and suicide risk), and preferences for opioid agonist treatment. She is a founding member of the Zero Suicide implementation team at her organization, Kaiser Permanente Northwest.