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Executive Officers
Larry G. Lewis, MSW, President and Main Blogger - pledge statement
Larry has been with MASP for over 10 years and he is a past-vice-president. He received his Bachelor of Art degree from Eastern Michigan University and his Master of Social Work degree from Wayne State University. He retired from his work with the United Steelworkers Union in community outreach and employee assistance programs.
Larry has a diverse background in community organizing and social planning. He was instrumental in developing and coordinating the Michigan State Suicide Prevention Plan, and continues to assist with its implementation. He also worked as a consultant to the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency in the development of their county-wide suicide prevention plan. He is also a certified master trainer for ASIST and safeTALK, Chairman of the Michigan Suicide Prevention Coalition, and Field Liaison of Michigan's 15th District for the Suicide Prevention Action Network.
Larry's goals are to position MASP so we can respond swiftly and effectively to increasing calls for more resources to prevent suicide and empower survivors.
Michael Mitchell, LBSW, Vice-President & Crisis Center Co-Chair
Mike has been with MASP for over 20 years. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in crisis intervention and suicide prevention. He works at the Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO) with the Emergency Telephone Service (ETS) Suicide Prevention Center, which is otherwise known as the Wayne County crisis line.
He has served as the training and education specialist for ETS, providing educational programs to schools, professional groups, and the community at-large. He is also a member of the Michigan Suicide Prevention Coalition and has been on the Critical Incident Team for Wayne County for 20 years. He is also a certified master trainer for ASIST.
Mike's goal is to foster more community involvement by building up our network of organizations (both large and small), providing more education to gatekeepers, and helping to increase the number of support groups that are available to survivors.
Joan Durling, SST, CCW, Secretary & Crisis Center Co-Chair
Joan has been with MASP for over 20 years. She is the Coordinator of the Community Critical Incident Stress Management Team (CISM) at the Shiawassee County Mental Health Authority, a position she has held for the last 27 of her 40 years at the Authority. Her background is in crisis work, traumatic events, suicide prevention and sexual assault.
She is also the Past-President of the Michigan Crisis Response Association, liaison for the Disaster Mental Health committee of Region 1 Mobil Medical Response and the County Collaborative Bodies, a volunteer Disaster Mental Health Worker for the American Red Cross, and a member of the Michigan Suicide Prevention Coalition. She is also involved with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation and a certified trainer for Basic, Advanced and Peer CISM.
Joan's goal is to reduce the stigma associated with suicide in the hope that more local communities will develop suicide prevention plans.
Judi Rosen-Davis, EdSpec, LPC, Treasurer
Judi has been with MASP for over 20 years and she is a past-president. She received her Bachelor's degree in education from Michigan State University (MSU), a Master's degree in guidance and counseling from Oakland University, and an Educational Specialist's degree in school administration from MSU.
She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and was a high school counselor over 30 years. In this position, she coordinated the school's suicide prevention and intervention program, which involved developing presentations for classroom use and for parents. She also provided individual and group counseling for students at risk of attempting suicide. Additionally, she has been a presenter at numerous conferences and workshops on suicide prevention. She is also an active member of the Oakland County Suicide Prevention Coalition and the Michigan Suicide Prevention Coalition. She is also a certified master trainer for ASIST and safeTALK.
Judi's goals are to attract more financial support and expand our ability to offer continuing education credits (CEUs) for our educational programs.
Executive Board Members
Vanessa Maria Lewis, LMSW, Education
Vanessa has been with MASP for over 20 years and she is a past-secretary. She is a clinical social worker with over twenty-five years of experience counseling individuals and families of all ages. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Eastern Michigan University and her Master of Social Work degree from Wayne State University. Currently, she is in private practice at Advanced Counseling Services in Taylor, Michigan, providing psychotherapy with a focus on depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and grief after loss. She is also a concerned parent.
Vanessa has a broad background in mental health treatment, suicidology (that is, the study of suicide) and crisis intervention. She provides professional and community presentations in mental health and suicide prevention. She has also facilitated grief after SOS support groups for over twenty years. She is a certified master trainer for ASIST and Clinical Core Competencies for Mental Health Professionals in Assessing and Managing Suicidal Risk. She is also an active member of the American Association of Suicidology, the Suicide Prevention Action Network, and the Michigan Suicide Prevention Coalition. Other experiences include community outreach and short-term crisis counseling. She is dedicated to the promotion of strategies for healthy mental health and suicide prevention education for our families, youth and communities.
Vanessa's goal is to return to an annual schedule of conferences and workshops held throughout the state. She also shares Judi's goal of offering CEUs for our educational programs.
Alton R. Kirk, PhD, Past-President, Diversity
Dr. Kirk has been with MASP for over 20 years and is a past-president. He earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Michigan State University where he was a Martin Luther King Fellow. He received his undergraduate degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C. In addition, he has completed specialized training in Suicidology through the Department of Continuing Education of Harvard Medical School. He has studied, researched, taught, published, consulted and practiced in the field of Suicidology for more than 35 years. In 1977 he received a national award from the American Association of Suicidology for his pioneering field research in the area of Black Suicide. In the early years of his work, he was often the lone voice in trying to get others to focus on the problem of Black suicide. He urged others to explore the Black/White differences in suicide and stressed the need for more research in this area.
Throughout the years, he has also been a member of several professional organizations, including the National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide (Current Board Member), American Psychological Association, Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists (Past President), American Association of Suicidology (Past Officer and Board Member), Association of Black Psychologists, Michigan Psychological Association, and Michigan Association of Black Psychologists (Past President). He has published and co-authored many articles in the area of suicide and destructive behaviors. Two articles have appeared in Ebony magazine. He wrote the chapter “Black Homicide” which appears in the book, The Human Side of Homicide, published by Columbia University Press.
He is the author of a new book that was published in 2009 entitled Black Suicide: The Tragic Reality of America's Deadliest Secret. It features a foreword by Dr. Donna Holland Barnes, President of the National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide (NOPCAS). If you are interested in purchasing a copy, the list price is $19.95 and you can buy it on Amazon.com. Dr. Kirk can also be contacted directly at draltonkirk@yahoo.com or (517) 351-9006 for appearances.
He is Director of Associated Psychological Services where he is in private practice as a psychotherapist and consultant in Suicidology in East Lansing, Michigan.
Steve Shelley, Spirituality
Steve has been with MASP for two years. He is a 15-year volunteer chaplain in the MTU Prison and Shiawassee County Jail. He has counseled inmates on death, suicide, and other issues. He has been married for 31 years and is father to a 19-year old.
Steve's goal is to help people find their way back to a "normal" life through spiritual guidance and comfort.
Ain Boone, Webmaster
Ain (pronounced "ah-een") has been with MASP for over 5 years. She is a Detroit native who has worked in survey research within a university setting for nearly 20 years. She received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Michigan - one in Psychology from the Ann Arbor campus in 1994 and the other in Health Policy Studies with a Track in Management Information Systems from the Dearborn campus in 2009.
She lost her beloved father, Martin, in November 2002 and credits her involvement in a Survivors of Suicide support group for playing a major role in her healing. Her activities in support of suicide prevention and postvention have included participation in survivor panels at conferences and events, awareness walks, Dr. Kirk's new book on suicide among African Americans, the Michigan Lifekeeper Quilt, and trainings in ASIST and survivor outreach. She also built this website in 2009, with guidance from Maryann Branstrom (thank you!), and MASP's blog in 2010.
Ain's goal is to improve access to helpful information about suicide, especially for survivors.
Advisory Board
Sean Joe, PhD, LMSW
Dr. Joe holds a joint position as Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan's School of Medicine. He is also a Faculty Associate with the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Joe is the 2009 recipient of the Edwin Shneidman Award from the American Association of Suicidology for outstanding contributions in research to the field of suicide studies and the 2008 recipient of the Early Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research. As a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among African Americans and current research projects focus on Black adolescents mental health service use patterns, the role of religion in Black suicidal Behavior (NIMH), salivary biomarkers for suicidal behavior, and developing father-focused family-based interventions to prevent urban African American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors (e.g., suicidal behavior). He has published in the areas of suicide, violence, and firearm-related violence. Dr. Joe serves on the board of the Suicide Prevention Action Network (SPAN USA), the scientific advisory board of the National Organization of People of Color Against Suicide, and the editorial board of Advancing Suicide Prevention, a policy magazine. He is co-chair of the Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network (ESIN) Research Study Group on African American Suicide, a national interdisciplinary group of researchers committed to advancing research in this area.
Cheryl King, PhD, ABPP
Dr. King is Director of the Institute for Human Adjustment and Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Michigan. She also serves as Director of the Youth Depression and Suicide Prevention Program in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. King completed her doctoral degree in psychology at Indiana University and her postdoctoral training at the Lafayette Clinic in Detroit. An active clinical educator, researcher, and public policy advocate, Dr. King is the recipient of multiple grant awards and a career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health for her clinical research pertaining to youth suicide prevention. In addition to her work in developing a social network intervention for acutely suicidal adolescents, Dr. King is currently developing a screening and treatment linkage intervention for adolescents treated in emergency settings who are at elevated risk for suicide. She was a member of the NIMH Scientific Advisory Board for the multi-site study, Treatment of Adolescent Suicide Attempters (TASA), and is on the Scientific Advisory Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Dr. King is a Past President of the American Association of Suicidology, the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers and the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Alton Kirk, PhD
Click here to see his bio.
Jack Klott, MSSA, LISW, CSW
Mary Leonhardi, LMSW, ACSW
David Litts, OD
Dr. Litts serves as Director, Science and Policy at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) and holds the position of Distinguished Scholar at Education Development Center, Inc. In this capacity, he leads a team of scholars and experts that guides the infusion of the best available science into all operational aspects of the SPRC. An additional focus is the development and dissemination of evidence-based suicide prevention policies and practices among professionals, community leaders and their organizations. Prior to this position, he served for three years as Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health and the US Surgeon General, managing the completion and initial dissemination of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. He has also served as Chief of Staff for the Air Force Surgeon General and first Executive Director of the Air Force Suicide Prevention Program, where he oversaw the development of a comprehensive population-based suicide prevention program covering 600,000 Air Force personnel. The program was associated with a statistically significant, 55 percent drop in the suicide rate over four years. He is the recipient of the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Award and the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.
Steven Stack, PhD
MASP, P.O. Box 0546, Allen Park, MI, 48101-0546, (734) 624-8328, masponweb@ymail.com
Copyright © 2010
Last Updated: 2/28/2010
