Professor of Psychology, Palo Alto University
Joyce Chu, Ph.D. is a licensed Clinical Psychologist whose expertise lie in the areas of suicide prevention, diversity and culture, community mental health, and program evaluation. She is currently a Professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University (PAU) where she directs/co-directs the Diversity and Community Mental Health (DCMH) emphasis and Multicultural Suicide Research Center, and a director at Community Connections Psychological Associates. Her work is focused around advancing the assessment and prevention of suicide for ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ populations, particularly in Asian Americans. She has published numerous works including a cultural theory and model of suicide and a tool that assists in accounting for cultural influences on suicide risk. Her work is community-collaborative and aims to address the need for culturally congruent outreach and service options for underserved communities.
Adult/Child Psychiatry Resident, Yale School of Medicine
Amanda Joy Calhoun, MD, MPH is a Chief Resident of the Child Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale Child Study Center/Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Calhoun graduated from Yale University with a BA in Spanish and received her MD and MPH from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri, where she grew up. Dr. Calhoun’s research, which she has conducted both in the USA and in Nigeria, has been funded by multiple national research awards. Her current research study, funded by the Yale Child Study Center and National Institute of Health (NIH), focuses on the mental health sequelae of anti-Black racism in children. Dr. Calhoun has authored 30 peer-reviewed publications, including 19 publications that she has first-authored.
Dr. Calhoun also specializes in the effects of medical anti-Black racism. She writes for the general press and has published over 30 op-eds in the past 2 years, in the Emancipator, TIME magazine, Washington Post, HuffPost, and many others. She has been interviewed on CBS News, PBS Newshour, and most recently, MSNBC, discussing how racism affects the health of Black Americans and most importantly, what we can do about it.
Training Director, National Asian American Mental Health Association
Pata Suyemoto is a feminist scholar, writer, educator, curriculum developer, equity trainer, mental health activist, jewelry designer, and avid bicyclist. She earned her PhD. from the University of Pennsylvania and did her research on anti-racist education and issues of race and racism. She is the Training Director for the National Asian American Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA). Pata is a master trainer for NAAPIMA’s Achieving Whole Health Program and the director of the National Asian American Pacific Islander Empowerment Network, which is a network of AAPIs with lived-experience related to mental health concerns. She is the Associate Director of Equity for the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention (MCSP). She is the co-chair of the Greater Boston Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition and the founder and co-chair of the MCSP Alliance for Equity. Pata is one of the authors of Widening the Lens: Exploring the Role of Social Justice in Suicide Prevention – A Racial Equity Toolkit. She has spoken and written about being a suicide attempt survivor and her struggles with chronic depression and PTSD. She is a co-founder of The Breaking Silences Project, which is an artistic endeavor that educates about the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American young women. Pata is also a member of a number of boards and committees including the MCSP’s Executive Committee, the planning committee for the annual Asian American Mental Health Forum, and the Equity Advisory Board for Carelon Health. Her claim to fame is that she rode her bicycle across the country in the summer of 2012.
Chief Behavioral Health Officer, MindWise Innovations
Lisa Desai, Psy.D. has over 25 years of clinical and administrative experience across delivery systems in college counseling, community mental health, hospitals, and private practice. As Chief Behavioral Health Officer at MindWise Innovations, Dr. Desai leads the development and implementation of behavioral health programs for workplaces and communities, with the goal of building psychologically safe environments and reaching at-risk and underserved populations. She oversees the MindWise behavioral health screening platform and regularly consults with partners across various sectors. Dr. Desai is committed to understanding and addressing specific, contemporary behavioral health needs and working collaboratively to expand access to resources. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and is fluent in Gujarati.
Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Boston University
Kate Bergstrom, who most recently served as the Executive Associate Commissioner for the America East Conference, officially joined Boston University in January 2024 as a Senior Associate Director of Athletics.
Prior to arriving at BU, Bergstrom had spent more than eight years at America East and was promoted to the executive role this past July. She has been the senior woman administrator at the conference since 2020 and served as interim commissioner in 2021.
Bergstrom served as America East's chief of staff and oversaw the finances and budget, as well as human resources and general business operations. She also led many of the conference's leadership initiatives, including Spread Respect (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) and health, safety, and well-being (mental health, sports performance, and sports medicine). In addition to working with the SWA Committee and serving as the primary liaison for several key groups, Bergstrom was also the conference's primary administrative contact and championship director for select sports.
Currently a member of the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Committee, Bergstrom also served as a member of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF)'s College Edition Work Group, assisting with a program to ensure coaches and staff are better able to help students who are experiencing mental health problems connect to appropriate assessment and care.
After joining America East in 2015, Bergstrom received four promotions, first starting as assistant director for administration before being elevated to director of engagement & championships two years later. In 2018 Bergstrom was named associate commissioner for internal operations and in 2020 was promoted to senior associate commissioner while inheriting the SWA role.
Bergstrom arrived in Boston in 2011 to become a corporate paralegal at Sullivan & Worcester, LLP, and took a job at Brafton, a Boston-based marketing firm, in early 2014 as a business development executive.
A native of San Francisco, Bergstrom was a captain and two-time Patriot League champion at Colgate as a member of the lacrosse team. She earned a bachelor's in psychology and was part of the Colgate Athletics Leadership Academy.
Bergstrom, who has attended the Women Leaders in College Sports Institute of Administrative Advancement, resides in East Boston with her wife, Katelyn Nerbonne, and their two sons, Beckett and Graham.
Chief Clinical Officer, Christie Campus Health
Kaitlin Gallo, Ph.D. is the Chief Clinical Officer at Christie Campus Health, a company that works to improve the mental health and wellbeing of college students. Kaitlin is also a clinical psychologist licensed in Massachusetts and New York. Outside of her role at Christie Campus Health, she has a private psychology practice. Kaitlin holds an A.B. with highest honors in psychology from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in psychology from Boston University. Prior to Christie Campus Health, she was a psychologist at the Anxiety Mastery Program at McLean Hospital. Kaitlin has received clinical and research awards from the American Psychological Association’s Divisions of Clinical Psychology and Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, and from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. She has served as an instructor and part-time lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a clinical instructor in psychology at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Founder, The Will To Live Foundation
John Trautwein is the proud father of four beautiful children, and Chief Customer Officer of Source Support Services, a global IT Services company headquartered in the Atlanta area (Lawrenceville, GA).
In October 2010, John and his family suffered the tragic loss of his oldest child, his 15 year old Son, Will, who took his own life Will, a strong, popular and successful young man was a freshman at Northview High School, and his death devastated not only the Trautwein’s but the entire community.
As a result, John and his wife Susie along with their surviving children and Will’s closest friends, started a nonprofit foundation called “The Will To Live Foundation” to work closely with the kids and through the kids of communities across America, to not only help spread the awareness of mental illness, and teen suicide, but also help these teens recognize the wonderful bonds of friendship they have in each other. We call these friends Life Teammates – and who better to help a friend find the good, then a Life Teammate.
John is a Graduate of Northwestern University and an Ex professional baseball player, playing 7 years in the Expos and Red Sox organizations, including pitching for the 1988 American League East Champion Boston Red Sox. His wife Susie was a lacrosse and field hockey player for the University of VA, thus you'll understand why the foundation’s message is so focused on the concept of “teammates” whether it be sports, clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, youth groups, churches, bands, orchestras, choirs or families, Life Teammates are in our lives today!
Since the foundation started, John has been making well over 100 speeches and presentations annually to high school students, college students, teams of all kinds, parents, coaches, teachers in communities across America. He has mastered the ability to deliver the Will To Live Foundation’s message of “love” and “hope” and being there for each other.
“John’s compelling message to young people comes from his heart. He has always had a passion for youth and now he combines that passion with a life experience to reach out through the "Will To Live" Foundation. His message to his audiences about loving one another is not only strong and full of impact but it also motivates them to establish caring relationships with their peers.” - Ron Wellman, Director of Athletics, Wake Forest University
John has turned the tragedy of the loss of his son, into a positive message that improves the lives and the Will To Live of kids everywhere. The “kids of Will To Live” have raised over $1,000,000 in an effort to raise awareness, increase education and deliver hope to each other, and their efforts have funded the acclaimed “Signs of Suicide” Program in schools not only in Atlanta but all over the country.
The Will to Live Foundation has been recognized nationally on CNN, Major League Baseball, The Big Ten Network, and Fox Sports, just to name a few. In 2012, John and his wife Susie were awarded the “Presidential Point of Light” award for their work with the Will To Live Foundation
Author
Linda Flanagan is a freelance journalist, researcher, and former cross-country and track coach. A graduate of Lehigh University, Flanagan holds master’s degrees from Oxford University and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and was an analyst for the National Security Program at Harvard University. She is a founding board member of the New York City chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance and a 2020–21 advisory group member for the Aspen Institute’s Reimagining School Sports initiative, and her writing on sports has appeared in The Atlantic, Runner’s World, and on NPR’s education site MindShift, where she is a regular contributor. A mother of three and a lifelong athlete, Flanagan lives in New Jersey.
Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Isray Institute, Indiana University
Anna Mueller, Ph.D. is the Luther Dana Waterman Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Irsay Institute at Indiana University. She is the Principal Investigator of the Social Worlds & Youth Well-being Study which is a project that aims to identify new, effective, and sustainable strategies to prevent suicide in collaboration with schools and their communities. In 2020, she was recognized as one of Science News’s Top 10 Early Career Scientists to Watch and with the Edwin S. Shneidman Early Career Award for her contributions to understanding youth suicide and suicide clusters. Her research has received numerous awards for its contribution to knowledge, from the American Sociological Association, the American Pediatrics Association, the Society for Science & the Public, among others. She is passionate about helping schools, families, and communities find better ways to prevent suicide and to heal after suicide losses.
Senior Manager of Trauma-Informed Care, Riverside Trauma Center & MindWise Innovations
Julia Campion, LICSW, ED.M. is a clinical social worker with 10 years of experience in direct service and program management across diverse clinical and educational settings. As Senior Manager of Trauma Informed Care, Julia develops accessible trainings in trauma-informed practices. She works closely with schools, organizations, and workplaces to learn and implement trauma-informed systems of support. Julia is trained in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma systems therapy. Julia started at Riverside Community Care, MindWise’s parent organization, in 2014 providing community-based Wraparound services within the Child and Family Services division. Julia served as the Program Director at Riverside’s Life Skills Center, a supportive, therapeutic program for adolescents presenting with major mental illness and experiencing disruptions in their homes, schools, and communities. Julia holds a Master of Social Work from Columbia University and a Master of Education from Harvard University.
Co-Founder and Director, Riverside Trauma Center & MindWise Innovations
Larry Berkowitz, Ed.D. is Co-Founder and Director of Riverside Trauma Center. He has provided direct therapeutic services for over 30 years and managed mental health services for over 25 years. Clinical areas of expertise include work with children, adolescents, adults, and families who are acute trauma survivors and/or suicide survivors. He coordinates and provides disaster response services and post-suicide intervention for individuals, schools, workplaces, and communities, and conducts trainings on suicide prevention. Dr. Berkowitz holds a doctoral degree in Counseling and Consulting Psychology from Harvard University and is a licensed Psychologist in Massachusetts. He is on the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention, held an appointment as a Teaching Associate in Psychology, Part Time, at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and is an Adjunct Instructor at William James College in Newton, MA where he teaches a course on understanding suicide to students in a graduate clinical psychology program.
Program Coordinator, Riverside Trauma Center & MindWise Innovations
Waheeda Saif, LMHC has worked with adolescents and adults for over 10 years, providing therapy to survivors of abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Prior to that, she served as a Guardian ad Litem for the Florida court system.
She has been with MindWise and Riverside Community Care since 2008, providing consultation after traumatic events, as well as conducting trainings on a range of issues regarding trauma and suicide. She served as a Team Leader in our FEMA-funded response to the tornados in central and western Massachusetts in 2011.
Waheeda is trained specifically in trauma therapy modalities, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She has a graduate degree in Mental Health Counseling from Boston College and speaks Urdu/Hindi.
Co-Founder and Associate Director, Riverside Trauma Center & MindWise Innovations
Jim McCauley, LICSW is the co-founder and Associate Director of MindWise's Trauma Center. He has been a clinician, manager, professor, and consultant for over 30 years in the U.S. and abroad.
Jim specializes in trauma postvention, suicide clusters, and developing and supporting suicide prevention coalitions. He presents nationally and internationally. An Army veteran, Jim has a special interest in developing and providing services for returning vets.
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