Suicide Awareness and Intervention

Dr. Kelly Posner is a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. The former President of the American Psychiatric Association noted her work with the Columbia Protocol could be “like the introduction of antibiotics.” The U.S. Department of Defense said that her work is “nothing short of a miracle” and stated "her effective model of improving the world will help propel us closer to a world without suicide.” The CDC noted that her work is “changing the paradigm in suicide risk assessment in the US and worldwide.”

Dr. Posner’s work has been noted in a keynote speech at the White House and in Congressional hearings, and she made the lead presentation in a forum on school safety at the U.S. Senate in her partnership with the Parkland community. Jim Shelton, former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, says her work “has the potential to keep the 64 million children in our schools safe physically and mentally by helping prevent school violence.” In Israel, where the protocol is in every school teacher’s hands, officials said her work “is not only saving millions of lives but in Israel it is literally changing the way we live our lives.” Through her advocacy she has helped change local, national, and international policy, which in turn has contributed to reductions in suicide across all sectors of society.

She gave the invited presentation on tackling depression and suicide at the first European Union high level conference on mental health, was recognized as the Most Distinguished Alumna of her graduate school at Yeshiva University in the past 50 years, and received the New York State Suicide Prevention Award. She was also named one of New York Magazine’s “Most Influential.”

The Columbia Protocol is policy across all 50 states, many national agencies, and most countries. Dr. Posner was commissioned by the FDA to develop a scientific approach that has become the gold standard for suicide monitoring and is ubiquitous across the U.S. and worldwide. The FDA has characterized her work as “setting a standard in the field” and a lead article in The New York Times called it “one of the most profound changes of the past sixteen years to regulations governing drug development.” Her scholarly work has been included in the compendium of the most important research in the history of the study of suicide.

In 2018, Dr. Posner was awarded the United States Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.

April Koh is the CEO and Co-founder of Spring Health, a comprehensive mental health benefit for employers. April believes mental healthcare is going to look radically different in the next 5-10 years: instead of being a guessing game of trial-and-error, mental healthcare will be precisely and accurately tailored to each individual through data. She started Spring Health because she wanted to build that future — where the hopelessness of guessing is replaced with the hope of data-driven, accurate care.

April has received honors from the American Psychiatric Association and has been featured in Crain's, Wall Street Journal, and National Quality Forum. She was named Forbes 30 Under 30 2018 in Consumer Technology, BusinessInsider’s 30 under 40 leaders in healthcare, a Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs in 2019, World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and is a Yale Entrepreneurial Institute fellow.

Mandie currently serves as Senior Director, Employer and EAP Strategy at Spring Health. She has clinical experience in EAP and substance use treatment and has previously worked as a Behavioral Health Consultant at Willis Towers Watson and Mercer.

Mandie has spent the last 20+ years working with Fortune 500 companies to promote emotional wellbeing in the workplace. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from St. Bonaventure University and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois. In addition to being certified as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Mandie is also a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200) and is working on her RYT 500.

She maintains her own mental health by teaching and practicing yoga, hanging with her family (husband and 13 & 10-year-old children) and pets (dog and guinea pigs), and gardening, cooking, and spending time outdoors.

Stephanie Molden is the Senior Director of Global Benefits and Programs at Ciena Corporation, and has over 24 years of experience in human resources. As part of Ciena’s People & Culture, Total Rewards organization, she oversees Global Benefits, Wellbeing, Flexibility Programs, Mobility and Immigration for 36 countries and 7,000+ people. She strives to bring innovative benefits and wellbeing solutions that foster flexibility, trust, innovation, caring, safety, ease, inclusion and belonging to support a culture of happiness and vibrancy.

In 2016, Stephanie led a cross functional and regional team that created and launched Ciena’s global holistic Wellbeing program across the entire population. The Wellbeing program has evolved over the years into a best-in-class offering with a strong focus on emotional wellbeing.

Stephanie is a collaborative leader and loves partnering with others to drive meaningful change within and outside of her organization. She serves as one of the leaders for the Black & African Heritage Employee Resource Group at Ciena, which she helped to launch. Stephanie is very passionate about professional and personal development, and views learning as a lifelong journey. She is a mentor, public speaker, Certified Holistic Life Coach, Certified Reiki Practitioner and studying to be a Certified Hypnotherapy Practitioner. She uses her skills and experiences to support her passion of empowering others, especially women, to overcome fears, insecurities, tragedies, and traumas so they can live their best lives. She believes everyone has the power and light within to thrive and she hopes to spread that message to everyone she encounters.