Keynote Speakers

Frank Campbell, PhD, LCSW

Dr. Campbell is the former Executive Director of the Baton Rouge Crisis intervention Center and the Crisis Center Foundation in Louisiana, USA. He is currently Senior Consultant for Campbell and Associates Consulting where he consults with communities and on Forensic Suicidology cases. It was due to his more than twenty years of working with those bereaved by suicide that he introduced his Active Postvention Model (APM) most commonly known as the LOSS (Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors ) Team. His work with survivors and victims of trauma has been featured in three discovery channel documentaries. The APM concept involves a team of first responders who go to the scene of a suicide and provide support and referral for those bereaved by the suicide. The goal has been to shorten the elapsed time between the death and survivors finding the help they feel will help them cope with this devastating loss. The Active Postvention Model has shown to have a positive impact on both the team members (most often bereaved individuals who have gotten help and now provide the installation of hope to the newly bereaved) as well as the newly bereaved. The model has now been replicated in countries as diverse as Australia, Singapore, Northern Ireland, and Canada.
Dr. Campbell is a past president of AAS and has received the Roger J. Tierney award for service and the Louis I Dublin Award in 2010 for his contributions to the field of Suicidology. Campbell was also selected by the International Association of Suicide Prevention to receive the 2009 Dr. Norman Farberow award for his international contributions on behalf of those bereaved by suicide.
He was Social Worker of the year in Louisiana and the first John W. Barton Fellow selected in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. To find out more about his work in the field of Suicidology you can visit www.lossteam.com

Michelle Rusk, Ph.D.
Michelle L. Rusk (Linn-Gust), Ph.D., inspires people to have meaningful and authentic lives. Whether she is discussing the 20 years she has spent working with the suicide bereaved, the lessons that running cross country and track taught her about life, or how learning to surf at 39 was a dream come true, Michelle is about making the most of life transitions and personal growth. She has written nine books, including three novels. She presents inspiring workshops, teaching people to set goals and cope with life situations, and works with people worldwide through her life coaching practice.

Jonathan Singer, Ph.D., LCSW
Dr. Jonathan Singer is a licensed clinical social worker and associate professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago. For the past 20 years, Dr. Singer has been a community mental health clinician, educator and researcher, much of that time providing crisis services to suicidal youth in schools. Dr. Singer is trained in Eye Movement Desensitazion and Reprocessing (EMDR), Solution-Focused Therapy, and Attachment-based Family Therapy (ABFT) for depressed and suicidal youth. Dr. Singer's clinical and research interests focus on interventions for suicidal and cyberbullied youth; service access and service utilization; and use of technology in education and clinical practice. Dr. Singer has given over 100 regional, national and international presentations to the U.S. Military, community mental health agencies, school districts, and national professional organizations on topics ranging from youth suicide and cyberbullying to ethics, social media, and adolescent development. He is the author of over 60 publications, including the 2015 Routledge text, Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner's Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention. His reseach has been featured in national and international media outlets like NPR, Fox, Time Magazine, and The Guardian. He is a founding member of #SPSM, an online suicide prevention social media community. He serves on the board of the American Association of Suicidology, the international organization Human Services Information Technology Association. He is the chair of the Children, Adolescent, and Young Adult Committee for the National Assocation of Social Worker, and the Council on Publications for the Council on Social Work Education. He is the founder and host of the award winning Social Work Podcast (www.socialworkpodcast.com). He lives in Evanston, IL with his wife and three children and can be found on Twitter as @socworkpodcast.

Martin Cheatle, Ph.D.
Dr. Cheatle is Director of Behavioral Medicine at the PENN Pain Medicine Center and Director, Pain and Chemical Dependency Research at the Center for Studies of Addiction, University of Pennsylvania. He is an Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Cheatle specializes in the evaluation and treatment of chronic pain disorders from a biopsychosocial perspective and has been involved in extensive research including a NIH funded 5-year longitudinal study of the development of addiction in patients initiating prescription opioid therapy for chronic pain and as PI of a currently funded NIH/NIDA grant assessing phenotypic and genotypic markers of prescription opioid abuse.  His main focus of research is pain management and addiction in vulnerable populations (HIV/AIDS, psychiatric patients) and pain and suicidal ideation and behavior. 

Breakout Speakers: 

William Beverly, PhD, LMFT
Dr. Beverly is a licensed psychologist and faculty member in the counseling department at South Mountain Community College, were he also serves as Coordinator of the Behavioral Health Sciences program. Dr. Beverly has held leadership positions in a wide array of behavioral health settings overseeing numerous behavioral health programs across the state of Arizona, including residential treatment for teens, therapeutic group homes for adults with serious mental illness, forensic psychological services, sex offender treatment, and general outpatient counseling and psychiatric services. He was previously the Lead Psychologist for the Maricopa County jail system, where he co-developed a trauma-informed model for training officers working with inmates with mental illness and cognitive impairment. Dr. Beverly has conducted numerous workshops and published on the topic of suicide prevention and intervention with vulnerable populations. Dr. Beverly is also an adjunct professor at Northern Arizona University, where he has taught in the educational psychology department for the last 10 years.

Schedule pending - check back for updates shortly.