As President I will address three primary issues: 1) Improving Board governance. I am working with Board members to restructure the way the annual conference is organized, the role of Board officers, and developing a skills matrix for identifying Board members. 2) Improving visible and hidden diversity on the Board. Board members are and have been white academics / professionals who do not reflect the groups at risk for suicide in the USA, nor do they reflect the breadth of ideas about how to reduce suicide and build lives worth living. I am working with people inside and outside the Board to identify people that will move AAS into the 21st century regarding representation and leadership. 3) Developing collaborations with social work-related organizations at the national level. I want to harness the power of social work and AAS’s expertise in suicide prevention to build collaborations and coalitions that will improve the lives of service users and service providers. For example, I worked with NASW’s Sarah Butts to have NASW co-sign a letter in support of a three-digit national crisis hotline number. Another example, is that I am working with the accreditation team at AAS to develop a committee made up of representatives from the accrediting bodies of social work, psychology, nursing, medicine, counseling, couples therapy, etc. to identify suicide-related topics and content that can be easily integrated into graduate training programs.
