CAPES Lived Experience Advisory Board (CLEAB)
Our Lived Experience Advisory Board includes five people who all have personal lived experience with suicidal thoughts and/or attempts and with the healthcare system, as well as two co-facilitators, Rick Strait of Education Development Center and Lourah Kelly, of UMass Chan Medical School. See Dr. Kelly’s faculty page on CAPES for more information on her role.
All CAPES projects consult with the Lived Experience Advisory Board at least once. We seek to align all projects with the needs of people with lived experience, from how we approach patients for recruitment to how we might communicate about digital tools and machine learning algorithms to patients.
See below for highlights about some of our current members!
Rick Strait (he/him)
Rick Strait is our co-facilitator for the CAPES Lived Experience Advisory Board, starting in February 2024. He is a licensed professional counselor and certified substance abuse disorder professional. He is a board member with United Suicide Survivors International and Missouri Association of Treatment Court Professionals. He has helped organize multiple suicide awareness conferences in Missouri. Rick’s unique ability to bridge his knowledge and his lived experience provides him with a depth of understanding and practical application to better serve the consumers and the programs he works with.
T'Leah Summers (she/her)
T'Leah Summers began with the CAPES Lived Experience Advisory Board in February 2024. She is a UMass Lowell Student in Information Technology and Psychology. T’Leah is also interested in other opportunities for advocacy while completing her technical training at UMass Lowell to turn advocacy into a career in research as a Clinical Data Analyst. She has used digital health tools in her own recovery and has also spoken to local colleges about using resources on campus to support mental health and be successful in school and beyond.
Erin Goodman (she/her)
Erin Goodman began with the CAPES Lived Experience Advisory Board in June 2024 . She is a Behavioral Health Training Supervisor at Gateway Healthcare in Rhode Island and faculty at the Zero Suicide Institute. Erin served previously as Program Director and lead facilitator of the Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) Training at the Parent Support Network of Rhode Island.
DeQuincy Meiffren-Lezine, PhD (he/him)
DeQuincy Meiffren-Lezine, PhD, began with the CAPES Lived Experience Advisory Board in June 2024. He is faculty at the Zero Suicide Institute and Director of the Lived Experience Academy and CEO of Prevention Communities, which focus on post-traumatic growth, life promotion, and suicide prevention. He leads Beyond Recovery: Post-Traumatic Growth and Post-Suicidal Growth through consulting, public speaking, and online workshops. Dr. Meiffren-Lezine was the inaugural chair of the Attempt Survivor and Lived Experience Division at the American Association of Suicidology and was a co-chair of the Consumer-Survivor Subcommittee for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Leah Harris, MA (they/she)
Leah Harris, MA, started with the CAPES Lived Experience Advisory Board in June 2024, is faculty at the Zero Suicide Institute, and possesses twenty years of experience writing, speaking, and training on trauma, mental health, and suicide prevention. They are self-employed as a writer, facilitator, and advocate — and is especially involved in liberation movements created by and for mad, mentally ill, neurodivergent, and disabled people. They have worked previously in SAMSHA’s National Center for Trauma Informed Care, The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, and the National Empowerment Center.
Jennifer Glynn
Jenni Glynn joined the CAPES lived experience board in February 2024, as someone who has lived with behavioral health challenges and lost loved ones to suicide. Jenni has been a long time advocate for empowering individuals impacted by behavioral health issues. Prior to 2016, Jenni worked in Massachusetts based politics and public policy and has continued this work since earning a master’s degree from Lesley University’s School of Counseling Psychology. Outside of her professional experience, she sits on the organizing committee for Friends for Depression Awareness, writes free lance articles on behavioral health issues, including the publication of her work as a chapter in a book edited by the late Dr. John Gunderson and Dr. Peri Hoffman. In 2021, her personal story was included in the McLean Hospital Deconstructing Stigma campaign. She has a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Atticus Finch.
