EXCOM Member

Shelby Rowe is the Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. A leader in the suicide prevention field for the past 15 years, Rowe has a wealth of experience working at the local, tribal, state, and national level, most recently serving as head of SPRC’s Tribal Initiatives Team and establishing the first SPRC Lived Experience Advisory Committee.

Rowe has collaborated extensively with other leaders across the U.S. to advance suicide prevention efforts. She serves on the Action Alliance’s American Indian/Alaska Native Task Force and Care Transitions Advisory Group, the Clinical Advisory Board for Crisis Text Line, the Board of Directors for RI International, and she co-chairs the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s Lived Experience Committee. Rowe also co-founded the American Association of Suicidology’s Indigenous Peoples’ Committee and is a former member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Crisis Organization Directors and United Suicide Survivors International. 

An award-winning artist, mother of three sons, and suicide attempt survivor, Rowe is the recipient of the 2021 American Association of Suicidology Transforming Lived Experience Award and the 2016 Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year. With a BA in sociology and philosophy and an MBA, she is an experienced public speaker and regularly travels across the country to speak at mental health and suicide prevention conferences and trainings.