Staff Member

Dana (Saporito) Careless (she/her) is the Director of Operations and Strategy for the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. She previously served as the Project Director for The Mental Health and Suicide Prevention National Response, an initiative of the Action Alliance lifted in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on leveraging key private-public partnership to achieve impact on the priorities set forth by the Steering Committee.

Trained as a clinician, Careless has nearly two decades of experience in direct care, operations, managed care, teaching and administration. She has worked at the city, state and national levels respectively, and has project managed several complex and high-profile initiatives. Careless is driven by a desire to think outside the box, lead with a clear vision, and eradicate the stigma associated with behavioral health challenges and believes deeply that sound operations lead to sound service delivery. She comes to the table with her own lived experiences, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and surviving suicide loss. These experiences drive her work focus and ethic every day.

Careless received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Loyola College in Baltimore and her masters degree in counseling and clinical health psychology from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, with a certificate in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. When she is not dreaming of a world where mental health is treated the same as physical health with a focus on top notch operations, she is spending time with her husband, three kids and dog. She loves being outside, watching Wheel of Fortune, and laughing with friends and family.