Suicide Prevention Through a Social Justice Lens
2022 Conference Agenda
September 15, 2022 - 8:30 AM-4:30 PM
Brenda Bahnson
Ms. Bahnson is currently the Administrative Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, MA where she oversees ambulatory BH services including: Behavioral Health Integration, Virtual Health, Partial Hospital, EAP/Berkshire Healthworks, the Primary Care Outreach Team, and the Youth Intensive Outpatient Program.
Tanoy Burton
Toy was a teen mom. She is a mother of two daughters with four grandchildren. Toy is a survivor of physical, verbal, sexual, and mental abuse. Toy is a suicide attempt survivor. She has been clean and sober for over 23 years. She has taken her pain and turned it into purpose.
Toy Burton is the Founder and Executive Director of DeeDee's Cry Suicide Prevention and Family Support. DeeDee's Cry is named after her sister, Denita Shayne Morris (DeeDee), who died by suicide when she was twenty-three years old, in 1986.
Toy started DeeDee's Cry in 2017, after noticing the lack of racial equity and social justice regarding mental health education and suicide prevention in communities of color. DeeDee's Cry creates space and events that elevate the conversation about mental health education and suicide prevention for people of color.
Toy Burton is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Roxbury Unity Parade. Toy started the Roxbury Unity Parade in 2018 after seeing other Boston neighborhoods have parades and celebrations for their community. Roxbury, once a predominately Black neighborhood in Boston, the parade celebrates Black culture, our contributions, and our excellence. The Roxbury Unity Parade recognizes people, organizations, and businesses that uplift Roxbury every day.
Ysabel Garcia
Ysabel is a first-generation Dominican immigrant with a bold and ambitious mission to dive heart first into raw and honest conversations about mental health, equity, and suicide prevention. As a psychiatric system survivor, she has witnessed the harmful effects of mainstream mental health practices, which often ignore the social and cultural factors underlying mental health issues. Still, she shows an endearing sense of humor during typically dark discussions and has the ability to talk openly about her experiences of pain to inspire others to do the same.
She founded Estoy Aqui LLC, a professional development training organization focused on exploring the connection between mental health, suicide, and social justice. Her training offers clear, compassionate, and culturally responsive support to organizations and institutions primarily serving the Latino/x and Black communities.
Ysabel earned a Bachelor’s degree in Child Psychology and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Bay Path University. As a skilled dialogue facilitator, wounded healer, and disruptor of systems of oppression, she also has an exhaustive training record, including certifications for Intentional Peer Support, Nonviolent Communication, Intergroup Dialogue, and Basic Mediation.
Dr. Gina Coleman
Gina Coleman, PhD. is the Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion for the Brien Center; a behavioral health agency serving children and adults throughout Berkshire County, MA. Dr. Coleman was recently the Director of Education for the Children’s Study Home in Springfield, MA; a non profit agency serving primary and secondary students with behavioral disabilities. Prior to her tenure at the Children’s Study Home, Dr. Coleman was Principal at Herberg Middle School, in Pittsfield, MA. Dr. Coleman also served as the Associate Dean of Students and Associate Director of Admission/Director of Diversity Recruitment at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, where she worked for nearly fifteen years. She continues to work at Williams’ as the Head Women’s Rugby Coach since 1996. Originally from the South Bronx, Dr. Coleman earned her B.A. in English from Williams College in 1990, her M.Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) in 2000, and her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2007.
In her time at Williams, Dr. Coleman developed a comprehensive diversity recruitment program for the College; further increasing enrollment of domestic students of color and first-generation students to a percentage that rivaled most selective colleges in the country. Dr. Coleman also demonstrated a commitment to early college awareness initiatives. As an alumna of A Better Chance, a nationally recognized program that gives gifted minority students the opportunity to attend some of the country’s finest secondary schools, Dr. Coleman was personally invested in the efforts of such educational outreach programs. She created Quest for College, an early college awareness board game that aimed to educate students on the college search, application and financial processes; empowering them to make sound academic and extracurricular choices.
Dr. Coleman is a former trustee of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts. She has also served as a faculty member in the Leadership Academy at MCLA, where she taught graduate level Education courses to public school educators as part of requirements to become administrators in their school districts. In 2007, Dr. Coleman received the Governor’s citation as an Unsung Heroine of Williamstown, selected by the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Lastly, since 1999 Dr. Coleman has been the lead singer of Misty Blues; an internationally recognized musical group that performs original and traditional blues infused with hints of jazz, soul, funk and tent revival gospel.
Dr. Pata Suyemoto
Dr. Suyemoto is a feminist scholar, writer, educator, curriculum developer, diversity 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 Equity Coordinator 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 the diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant for the American Association of Suicidology and also 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 board of directors for the American Association of Suicidology. Her claim to fame is that she rode her bicycle across the country in the summer of 2012.
Jennifer Kelliher
Jennifer has been the Managing Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention since 2012 and has been doing coalition work for over 13 years. In her role as Managing Director, she assists the state’s 10 regional coalitions, prepares educational materials to support advocacy efforts that ensure adequate funding for suicide prevention resources across the Commonwealth, and helps guide the strategic vision of the Coalition’s work. She is passionate about social justice and has been the chair of the White Ally Caucus since its inception in 2017. She is the co-author of Widening the Lens: Exploring the Role of Social Justice in Suicide Prevention—A Racial Equity Toolkit. She has been co-presenting on social justice and racial equity across Massachusetts and at national and international conferences. She has a degree in Women’s Studies from Smith College and currently lives in Lowell, MA where she spends her free time working on several unfinished novels.
Conference Sponsors:
Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention, Berkshire Health Systems, The Brien Center, NAMI Berkshire County, The Austen Riggs Center, Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Suicide Prevention Program, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention and the Alliance for Equity.