DeQuincy Lezine
Dr. DeQuincy Lezine attempted suicide during college, then turned his personal despair into advocacy by forming the first student-led college mental health and suicide prevention group (Brown University chapter of the Suicide Prevention Action Network; B-SPAN). Since 1996, Dr. Lezine has worked with many organizations including SPAN USA, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the Organization of Attempters and Survivors in Interfaith Services (OASSIS), and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to promote suicide prevention. After graduating from UCLA with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology he joined the University of Rochester Center for the Prevention and Study of Suicide as a postdoctoral research fellow. He is the author of Eight Stories Up: An Adolescent Chooses Hope Over Suicide , released in April 2008 by Oxford University Press. He is interested in building community support for mental health promotion and suicide prevention, with a particular interest in increasing the roles for attempt survivors in prevention programs.