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Transforming Communities Group

The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention emphasizes the key role that community-based programs, policies, and services can play in suicide prevention. To ensure that communities know where to start and what they can do, this group was charged with developing a resource guide on comprehensive community-based suicide prevention, released in 2017.

Note: This group is no longer active. Titles and affiliations are from the time of membership and may have since changed.

Co-Leads

  • Bob Gebbia, CEO, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (Private Sector)
  • Proxy: Christine Moutier, MD, Chief Medical Officer, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
  • Jim Mercy, Director, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Public Sector)
  • Proxy: Deborah Stone, ScD, MSW, MPH, Behavioral Scientist, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention    
  • Jerry Reed, PhD, MSW, Director, Center for the Study and Prevention for Injury, Violence, and Suicide, EDC (Private Sector)
  • Proxy: Elly Stout, Director of Grantee and State Initiatives, Suicide Prevention Resource Center, EDC)

Members

  • Doreen Bird, Senior Tribal Prevention Specialist, Suicide Prevention Resource Center, EDC
  • Heidi Bryan, Founder, Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council and Heidi Bryan Consulting, LLC
  • Gigi Colombini, LMSW, Psychotherapist - Suicide Prevention Specialist, G. Colombini Counseling, PLLC
  • John Harrison, Sr., DM, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, Special Assistant to the Chairman and CEO, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America
  • Elaine deMello, Training & Services Manager, Connect Suicide Prevention Project, NAMI New Hampshire
  • Jarrod Hindman, MS, Director, Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment
  • Heather Stokes, LCSW, Vice President, LivingWorks Education, Inc.
  • Melanie Ruhe, MPH, Program Analyst, National Association of County and City Health Officials
  • Ann Marie White, EdD, Director, Office of Mental Health Promotion, University of Rochester Medical Center
  • Eileen Zeller, MPH, Lead Public Health Advisor, Center for Mental Health Services, Division of Prevention, Traumatic Stress and Special Programs, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

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