Speakers
Gary M. Blau, Ph.D. has been a Licensed Clinical Psychologist for nearly 30 years and for the past 14 years he has been the Chief of the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration where he provides national leadership for issues related to child and youth mental health.
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In September 2000, Kevin Hines leapt off the Golden Gate Bridge, a method of suicide attempt that has resulted in death for most of the 2000 people who have made that jump since the bridge was erected in 1937. He is one of only thirty-six (less than 1%) to survive the fall and he is the only Golden Gate Bridge jump survivor who is actively spreading the message of living mentally healthy around the globe.
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Nancy Lublin is the Founder and CEO of Crisis Text Line, social entrepreneur Nancy Lublin harnesses people, technology, and data to change the world. While many operate in traditional models of outreach and management, Lublin breaks them. She turns her new and effective solutions into some of today’s most innovative and disruptive nonprofits and social movements, which is why Fortune named her one of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders.”
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John MacPhee serves as executive director and CEO of The Jed Foundation (JED), a nationalnon-profit that exists to protect emotional health and prevent suicide for teens and young adults. John brings 25 years of leadership and management experience from the business and not-for-profit settings to his role at JED. Passionate about supporting young adults in their transition to adulthood, he also serves as a board member of Bottom Line New York, a nonprofit organization that provides guidance counseling to low income, New York City youth to help them get into college and graduate.
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Dr. Isaiah Pickens is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader, an American Psychological Association Early Career Achievement Awardee, and was awarded the Black Enterprise BE Modern Man for his contributions to the field of psychology. Dr. Pickens (licensed clinical psychologist) serves as the Assistant Director of the Service Systems Program at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS), the coordinating site of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). Dr. Pickens is also a Steering Committee member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ (NCJFCJ) and Office for Victims of Crime’s (OVC) Vision 21: Linking Systems of Care for Children and Youth and has publications that address trauma-informed approaches to juvenile justice and school settings.
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Dior Vargas is the creator of the People of Color and Mental Illness Photo Project, a response to the invisibility of people of color in the media representation of mental illness. Dior is the recipient of numerous awards including, The White House Champion of Change for Disability Advocacy Across Generations, 2015 Alternatives Conference Cookie Gant and Bill Compton LGBTQI Leadership Award and a Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame Inductee. She is working towards a Master of Public Health at NYU's College of Global Public Health.
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