David Rudd, Ph.D., ABPP – Co-Chair of Committee, University of Memphis, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and President Emeritus
M. David Rudd (he/him/his), PhD, ABPP, is a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Director of the Rudd Institute for Veteran and Military Suicide Prevention, and past president at the University of Memphis. The entirety of his clinical and scientific career has focused on the assessment, clinical management, and treatment of suicidality across the full range of clinical settings. He is the co-create of BCBT-SP and completed the first RCT for BCBT conducted at Fort Carson that demonstrated a 60% reduction of post-treatment suicide attempts relative to treatment as usual, and recent work with Dr. Gretchen Diefenbach and Dr. David Tolin of Yale on an RCT modifying BCBT for an inpatient setting that resulted in a 60% reduction of relative risk for suicide attempt in comparison to treatment as usual, a 71% reduction in hospital readmission rates, and 75% reduction in emergency department visits.
Organization Affiliation: Director of the Alachua County Crisis Center
Organization Affiliation: Volunteers of America
Gail Selander, M.B.A., M.A. – Accreditation and Credentialing Administrator International Council for Helplines
Gail (she/her/hers) joined the International Council for Helplines (ICH) in June 2021 to oversee the accreditation and credentialing programs after retiring as the Executive Director in 2019. Gail has previously worked at Volunteers of America Western Washington (VOAWW) as the Director of Operations for Behavioral Health programs, which included the 24/7 crisis line and online emotional support services. Prior to VOAWW, she spent many years working in leadership, operational, and human resource roles with corporations such as Microsoft and Expedia. Gail has previously served on the NSPL Steering Committee, the CONTACT USA Board of Directors, and the Lifeline International Board of Directors. Gail currently sits on the Policy and Advisory Group for Lifeline International and is an accreditation examiner for ICH. Gail has a master’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in counseling psychology.
Gregory K. Brown, PhD – Research Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry; Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Brown (he/him/his) is the Director of the Penn Center for the Prevention of Suicide and the Co-Director of the Penn Innovation in Suicide Prevention Implementation Research (INSPIRE) Center which is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Brown is an internationally renowned expert in suicide prevention whose work has led to transformational advances in the treatment of suicidal individuals. His research aims to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative, targeted interventions designed to reduce vulnerability factors associated with suicide behavior in high-risk populations and to examine and improve the implementation of evidence-based treatments into “real world” settings to prevent suicide. Dr. Brown and his colleague, the late Dr. Barbara Stanley, developed a brief intervention, called the Safety Planning Intervention (SPI), which is a prioritized and specific set of coping strategies and sources of support that can be used during suicidal crises. This evidenced-based intervention has been widely adopted in acute care settings. Earlier in his career, Dr. Brown and his colleagues developed Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention intervention, a short-term psychotherapy that has been found to be effective in preventing repeat suicide attempts among individuals at risk for suicide.
John “Jack” Rozel, MD, MSL, DFAPA – Medical Director, resolve Crisis Services of UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Rozel (he/him) started his journey in emergency mental health as a suicide hotline volunteer more than 30 years ago. He is a Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh. Over his career, he has worked locally and nationally to improve crisis services for patients and communities and has been involved in a number of efforts to improve the interface between the legal and mental health systems. He has been the medical director of Resolve Crisis Services of UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital since 2010 and is a Past President of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry. He divides his attention between emergency psychiatry and violence prevention and response across a variety of settings. Dr. Rozel’s contributions have been recognized by organizations including NAMI, CIT International, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Dr. Mascari (she/they) provides bilingual (English/Spanish) therapeutic services to all ages regarding behavioral health challenges, substance use, safety concerns, and mood disorders. Dr. Mascari specializes in providing Trauma Informed Care and working with LGBTQIA+ individuals through culturally centered healing. Dr. Mascari also serves on the 988 Standards, Training, and Practice National Committee.
Lisa Horowitz, PhD, MPH – National Institute of Mental Health, Senior Associate Scientist/Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Lisa Horowitz (she/her) is a Clinical Psychologist and a Senior Associate Scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH. Dr. Horowitz received her doctorate in clinical psychology from George Washington University, completed a Pediatric Health Service Research Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, and obtained a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. The major focus of Dr. Horowitz’s research has been in the area of suicide prevention in the medical setting that involves validating and implementing tools for clinicians, such as the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ). She is also one of the co-authors of the Blueprint for Youth Suicide Prevention, released by the American Academy of Pediatrics this past March. Dr. Horowitz is collaborating with adult and pediatric hospitals, and outpatient clinics both nationally and globally, assisting with the implementation of suicide risk screening and management of patients who screen positive using the ASQ Toolkit and Suicide Risk Clinical Pathways. She very much values her partnership with the Indian Health Service suicide prevention team, and looks forward to being part of the roll-out team for suicide risk screening in IHS facilities across the country.
Organization Affiliation: Senior Scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Meryl Cassidy, ACSW, LMSW – Executive Director, Response Crisis Center
Meryl Cassidy (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Response Crisis Center, the Co-Chair of the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Long Island, and an Assistant Professor at Suffolk County Community College in the Human Services Program. She has been a professional social worker for over 35 years and has worked in a variety of settings and with diverse populations. For the past Sixteen years of her career, she has focused primarily on crisis intervention and suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. In addition to managing the operations of Suffolk County’s only 24/7 crisis center devoted to suicide prevention, she provides professional trainings for human service professionals and community members on a broad range of topics, including crisis theory, communication and listening skills, suicide risk assessment and safety planning as well as being a certified ASIST trainer, Sources of Strength Trainer, and Lifeline’s Postvention Trainer. She is co-chair of the Mental Health Subcommittee for the Division of Community Mental Hygiene, and a Board Member of NASCOD (National Association of Crisis Organization Directors). In 2015 she received the Excellence in Suicide Prevention Award from the Suicide Prevention Center of New York State, and in 2016 she received the “Making the Mission” award from NASCOD.
Organization Affiliation: TransLifeline
Peter C. Britton, PhD – Psychologist, Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, VA Finger Lakes Health Care System, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center
Peter Britton, PhD, (he/him/his) is a clinical psychologist who is an investigator at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VISN 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention in the VA Finger Lakes Healthcare System, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Britton has two externally funded programs of research. He develops and tests suicide prevention interventions for high-risk populations including veterans at high risk for suicide and is currently testing an adaptation of Motivational Interviewing to Address Suicidal Ideation (MI-SI) in a three-site randomized controlled trial. He was also the inaugural researcher-in-residence at the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL), during which he conducted an evaluation of VCL effectiveness. He is currently conducting a multi-method examination of emergency dispatches that are initiated by Veterans Crisis Line responders using quantitative and qualitative methods.
Peter Gutierrez, PhD – LivingWorks Education Inc, Executive Vice President, Innovation
Peter (he/him/his) oversees the development and maintenance of LivingWorks training programs, and their research and evaluation agendas, and provides suicide subject matter expertise. He earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1997 and has served as a faculty member at Northern Illinois University and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and was a clinical/research psychologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Peter currently holds an appointment as a professor in the department of psychology at Florida State University. He has been a suicide prevention researcher for over 25 years and has directed or co-directed multiple large federally funded research projects including the Military Suicide Research Consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. Peter is also a past president and former Board member of the American Association of Suicidology, a Fellow of the International Academy of Suicide Research, and an associate editor of the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.
Stephen O’Connor, PhD – National Institute of Mental Health, Chief, Suicide Prevention Research Program
Dr. Stephen O’Connor (he/him) is Chief of the Suicide Prevention Research Program in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Division of Services and Intervention Research. Dr. O’Connor manages a portfolio of grants that includes projects on youth and adult-related suicide risk detection and interventions to reduce suicide intensity, attempts, and deaths. Prior to joining the NIMH, Dr. O’Connor conducted research focused on early intervention for suicide attempt survivors in trauma centers; group-based treatment for suicidal Veterans; a stepped, collaborative care approach to reduce posttraumatic stress, depression, substance use, and suicide risk in hospitalized trauma patients; and other health services-oriented efforts to improve screening, assessment, and treatment related to suicide prevention in both traditional and non-traditional behavioral health settings.