Suicide Prevention Events
SPCC Members host events and classes throughout Colorado. Each month we have a complete calendar of events.
Board of Directors
Barb Mettler, Colorado Springs
SPCC Board Chair Barb Mettler is the chief compliance officer at Spanish
Peaks Mental Health Center in Pueblo, where she has worked for 19
years. She holds a master’s degree in guidance and counseling, is a
licensed professional counselor and has 29 years of experience in mental
health. She is the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Suicide Prevention
Partnership of the Pikes Peak Region and the Pueblo Suicide Prevention Center
and serves on the Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Research and Prevention Institute, as well as
co-chairing the Governor’s Committee for 27-65.
Rebecca “Becca” Emme
Becca Emme is the program director for the Yellow Ribbon International
Suicide Prevention Program and serves as a consultant for those working
to create suicide prevention plans in their communities or states. She
provides suicide prevention gatekeeper training and community
development training. Becca is a founding member of the Suicide
Prevention Coalition of Colorado, was a member of the Citizens’ Advisory
Panel to the Colorado Governor’s Suicide Prevention Advisory Commission,
assisted in creating the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention and
served on its advisory committee from 2003-2005. Becca was appointed by
Gov. Bill Owens to the Colorado State Mental Health Advisory Board for
Service and Standards Regulations and continues to serve on this
committee. She is a survivor of her brother Michael Emme’s suicide.
Richard Eveleigh, Denver
Richard Eveleigh is the Executive Director of Second Wind Fund and the
former Vice President of Programs at Mental Health America
of Colorado. He holds a master's degree
in Public Administration from CU, Denver, and a master's degree in
Philosophy from the University of Hull, UK. He currently serves on the
boards of the Colorado Rural Health Center and the Suicide Prevention
Coalition of Colorado. Prior to focusing his career on the management of
nonprofit organizations, Richard was a teacher and worked at schools in
the United Kingdom, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic.
Brenda Gierczak, Aurora
Brenda Gierczak, MA CG-C, is the former program coordinator for the
Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado. She currently is working on a
research project for the American Association of Suicidology, as a
psychological autopsy investigator. Brenda is on the International Board
for the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention program, is co-facilitator of
the East Metro HEARTBEAT support group and is a moderator for Friends
and Families of Suicide Survivors. She is currently an adjunct
instructor in the business/accounting department for Everest College.
Brenda holds a masters degree in organizational management, and an
undergraduate degree in business management. She is a certified grief
counselor and an independent grant writer.
Jarrod Hindman, Denver
Jarrod Hindman, MS, is the program manager of the Office of Suicide
Prevention in the Injury, Suicide and Violence Prevention Unit at the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Jarrod manages the
legislatively mandated Office of Suicide Prevention, which is
responsible for serving as the lead entity for suicide prevention and
intervention efforts, collaborating with Colorado communities to reduce
the number of suicide deaths and attempts statewide. Activities of the
Office of Suicide Prevention include increasing public awareness
regarding suicide and suicide prevention, providing resource information
for suicide prevention, and disseminating and monitoring community
grants for suicide prevention.
Kim Johancen-Walt, Durango
Kim received her master’s degree in counseling from the University of
Colorado at Denver in 2000 and is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She
is a counselor and assistant training director at Fort Lewis College and
runs a private practice. Kim is a cognitive-behavioral therapist and
specializes in trauma and behavior, with particular interest in the
areas of self-injury and suicide. She helped create and implement an
adolescent outpatient treatment program for self-harming and suicidal
adolescents and their families in La Plata County. Kim has had articles
published by the American Counseling Association including Swimming with
Sharks (2007) and Finding Common Ground: The first interview with the
self-harming and suicidal client (2009), and wrote a chapter for Matthew
Selekman’s book: The Adolescent and Young Adult Self-Harming Treatment
Manual (2009). Kim has presented at the International Society for the
Study of Self-Injury (ISSS) annual conference at Harvard University and
the ISSS conference at Stony Brook University in New York, and the
American Group Psychotherapy Association annual conference in Chicago.
Her passions include rock climbing, writing and spending time with her
husband, two daughters and numerous animals.
Sue Klebold, Denver
Prior to Sue Klebold’s retirement in July 2010, she worked for the State
of Colorado. She was an instructor and administrator in the Colorado
Community College System for more than 20 years before joining the
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, where she implemented a
statewide career readiness certification initiative. Sue has a master’s
degree in education and is a survivor of her son’s suicide. She is the
mother of Dylan Klebold, one of two gunmen in the Columbine High School
shootings of April 20, 1999 in Littleton. Since Dylan’s death, Sue has
tried to raise suicide awareness and support prevention efforts. She has
participated in presentations and written about the experience of
surviving a loved one’s murder-suicide. She is a member of the Survivor
Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Abby Landmeier, Grand Junction
Abby Landmeier is a Western Colorado native. She has spent the last six
years working with nonprofits that are focused on helping families, many
of whom were involved with the Department of Human Services. Most
recently, she was a Housing Advocate for the Family Unification Program,
where she assisted families on Section 8 Vouchers maintain housing. Abby
worked on Project Safety Net helping to deliver and facilitate QPR and
ASIST trainings. She is currently a Master level ASIST trainer with
hopes of becoming a consulting trainer and has assisted agencies develop
suicide prevention procedures. Abby has presented at the Annual American
Association of Suicidology and the Colorado Statewide Suicide Prevention
Conference on Music’s Impact on Depression and Ideation. Currently Abby
is the vice president of Rotaract, a junior division of Rotary focused
on young professionals. Abby holds a BA from Grand Canyon University and
is looking at graduate schools.
Susan Marine, Boulder
Susan Marine completed her PhD in medical and family sociology at the
University of Minnesota, where her work was supported by a training
grant from the National Institute on Mental Illness. Susan joined the
faculty of the University of Colorado Medical School in 1975, where she
was instrumental in developing curriculum for medical and nursing
students that stressed the importance of the family, cultural
differences and other social factors that affect clinical practice.
Susan worked for several years at the Mental Health Center Serving
Boulder and Broomfield Counties conducting outcome research. Since
retiring, she has focused most of her voluntarism on mental health,
serving on the Advisory Board of the Chinook Clubhouse and teaching the
Mental Health First Aid curriculum. Having lost two children to suicide,
Susan is an active member of the HOPE Coalition, Boulder, as well as
SPCC. She is also a founding member of the Interfaith Network on Mental
Illness in Boulder.
Bill Porter, Denver
Bill Porter received his doctorate in child clinical psychology in 1978
from the University of Denver. He has devoted his professional career to
developing mental health programming for children and families using
“opportunities.” He worked in community mental health for Denver General
Hospital prior to joining the Cherry Creek School District, where he
directed a wide variety of student programs for 25 years. Bill was a
founding member of Creating Caring Communities, a nonprofit developed to
promote the programming efforts of Bully-Proofing Your School, a
comprehensive safe-school effort of which he is a co-author. Bill also
is an advisory member to the Office of Suicide Prevention. His program
efforts have received local and national acclaim.
Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado
Deanna Rice, Golden
Deanna Rice is one of the founding members and past board chair of SPCC.
Her passion for suicide prevention stems from the death of her
14-year-old son to suicide in 1994. A year later her advocacy began with
a personal letter to Governor Romer inquiring why more was not being
done in Colorado to prevent suicide. Deanna served alongside Governor
Romer’s Suicide Prevention Advisory Commission on the Citizens’ Advisory
Panel. In January, 1999 following the completion of the Commission’s
work, SPCC was formed to provide leadership for the implementation of
the Colorado’s Suicide Prevention and Intervention Plan.
Ann Seanor, Denver
Ann Seanor is manger of the State of Colorado’s Division of Behavioral
Health’s Older Adult Intervention Program. Having been born and raised
in Southwest Colorado and after living in North Dakota for10 years, Ann
understands the rural community. While in North Dakota, she worked with
persons with developmental disabilities, as she completed her
undergraduate degree in social work. She returned to Colorado in 1988
and began working with the State of Colorado the following year. Ann has
in-depth experience with providing mental health treatment, connections
and services to older Coloradoans with serious mental illness.
Jonathan Shamis, Aspen
Attorney Jonathan Shamis is the executive director of Alpine Legal
Services based in Aspen. Previously, he was a partner at the law firm of
Kleinschmidt and Shamis, LLC, specializing in criminal and family law,
as well as complex litigation in the Vail and Roaring Fork Valleys. From
1989 to 1997, he was a Cook County Public Defender in Chicago
specializing in juvenile and dependency and neglect cases. Jonathan is a
certified trainer in QPR. He has completed advanced training in Couples
Counseling from the Gottman Institute in Seattle and has completed
graduate work in counseling psychology at the University of Colorado,
Denver. Jonathan was a journalist for the Detroit Free Press and
directed an organization that forged coalitions amongst diverse ethnic
groups in Chicago. He worked with theater companies off-Broadway and in
Chicago directing plays and other production work. A father of two
adolescent children, he is active in the local arts community and enjoys
bicycling, backcountry skiing, rafting, trail running and an occasional
marathon.
Sally Spencer-Thomas, Conifer
As a clinical psychologist, mental health advocate, faculty member, and
survivor of her brother’s suicide, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas sees the
issues of mental health promotion and suicide prevention from a number
of perspectives. She is the executive director for the Carson J Spencer
Foundation, the executive secretary for the National Action Alliance for
Suicide Prevention and a professional speaker for CAMPUSPEAK. As a
Master QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Trainer, she trains trainers
across the Rocky Mountain region. She has presented nationally and
internationally on the topics of mental health promotion and suicide
prevention including speaking engagements for the FBI Academy, the
National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, the American
College Personnel Association, the International Association of Campus
Law Enforcement Administrators, the American Association of Suicidology,
and the International Association of Suicide Prevention. She currently
serves as as the Survivor Division Chair for the American Association of
Suicidology. While at Regis University, she was the Project Director for
the Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention Grant and developed a
comprehensive suicide prevention program for campuses called “People
Prevent Suicide.”
Lisa Van Bramer, Denver
Lisa Van Bramer joined the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado in
2005. As an Emergency Medicine and Preventive Medicine physician, Dr.
Lisa saw first-hand the devastating consequences of preventable
injuries, illnesses and deaths. In 2002, she founded the Rocky Mountain
Research & Prevention Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization,
with a mission of keeping people healthy & safe in the Rocky Mountain
region. To date, RMRPI has: created the Colorado Kids 1st license plate
which raises money for children’s health & safety programs, sponsored
the soberRide program to reduce drunk driving, provided the Aurora Youth
4 Success program to 200 teens in Aurora, and in 2008, RMRPI became the
proud fiscal sponsor of the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado. In
addition to her interests in health promotion, injury prevention and
advocacy, Dr. Lisa is passionate about her family. Together with her
wonderful (and extremely supportive) husband Erik, they are raising
three fabulous kiddos Jake, Josh and Emma.
Matt Vogl, Board Chair, Denver
Matt Vogl joined the University of Colorado Depression Center in 2008 as
the community programs manager. In this role Matt oversees the
development and implementation of a variety of projects to extend the
reach of the Depression Center into communities across the state,
including suicide prevention, behavioral health awareness/stigma
reduction, services for returning military/veterans school-based
initiatives, perinatal treatment and prevention of mood disorders, and
integration of behavioral health into primary care practices. Matt
recently coordinated a comprehensive behavioral health needs assessment
in Pitkin County, and will assist in implementing recommendations made
as part of the project. He has held a wide variety of positions in
health care and public health, particularly in the field of perinatal
health, including director of the national implementation of the Nurse
Family Partnership, a nurse home-visiting program for low-income
first-time mothers. Matt earned his Masters of Public Health from the
University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marquette
University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Andrea Weyand, SPCC Coordinator
Before moving to Denver, Andrea worked with WordOne, an Atlanta-based
company focused solely on nonprofit communications. Prior to this,
Andrea worked as a communications assistant for the Georgia Partnership
for Excellence in Education and as the public relations coordinator for
Prudential Georgia Real Estate. Andrea taught at Kennesaw State
University as an adjunct professor of communication for 10 years. Andrea
also led a variety of classes for the Georgia Center for Nonprofits and
conducted workshops for several nonprofits, covering nonprofit branding,
communications planning, presentation skills, creating effective print
and online publications and others. Andrea has conducted key message and
branding workshops for the Welborn Baptist Foundation (Evansville, IN),
the Mary Black Foundation (Spartanburg, SC); Quality Care for Children
(Atlanta), Prevent Child Abuse Georgia (Atlanta) and others. She is a
founding member of the Destiny Fund of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, a
fund intended to increase the understanding of and participation in
philanthropy in women ages 25-40. Andrea received her BS from Illinois
State University in Public Relations and her MA in Professional Writing
from Kennesaw State University.
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