Our Story
In August 2019, Michelle and Charlette each walked into an ASIST suicide intervention T4T (training for trainers) with excitement of becoming better equipped to make an impact in the community. Little did they know, it was the beginning of a journey that would change not only their lives, but hopefully many more. A few trainings together and it was clear, these two make a great team. Catching up after the holidays, Charlette and Michelle were looking forward to a dinner date where they were unknowingly planning to share the same ambitious idea. A few months later, their initial excitement evolved into a budding business that brings together and fuels both of their passions for creating healthy, equitable, thriving communities.
Towards that end, Incite Agency for Change can provide a wide range of services to support individuals, organizations, and communities. The duo collaborates with others to create networks of safety through suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention trainings; speaking engagements and education on intersecting topics; public health consulting and curriculum development, holistic wellness retreats, and other healing and wellness activities.
Charlette and Michelle are both seasoned and engaging presenters with subject matter expertise on a wide range of topics including suicide and mental health; sexual, relationship, and gender-based violence; alcohol and substance use; holistic wellbeing; and more.​
But that's not the only reason you will love working with this team!
You’ll quickly sense their...
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Energy and passion
Thoroughness and attention to detail
Commitment to creating safe spaces
Pledge to professionalism
Standard of excellence for getting the job done​
Charlette and Michelle provide highly individualized services, with customization baked into the process. Whatever your needs, they’ll strive to meet them. Continue reading for their individual bios and get to know more about Charlette and Michelle, or check out what their partners and clients have to say.
Co-Founder Bios
Michelle Bangen
MPH, CHES
Michelle Bangen, MPH, CHES is a public health educator and health promotion specialist who has spent the past 19 years developing, implementing, and assessing comprehensive wellness, suicide, sexual violence, and substance use prevention initiatives in higher education, non-profit, and governmental agency settings. Michelle holds a BS in Exercise Science from Miami University (Ohio) and a Masters in Public Health from The Ohio State University. Her work is rooted in public health, feminist, and anti-oppression frameworks, and her true passion and life-long endeavor is building healthy, socially just communities where all people can thrive.
A certified LivingWorks ASIST and SafeTALK, QPR, Youth SAVE, Oregon CALM, Oregon Community CALM, Connect Postvention, and Sources of Strength trainer, Michelle has also developed evidence-based and nationally award-winning curricula of her own. She partnered with the Oregon Health Authority for curriculum development and the adaptation of Counseling on Access to Lethal Means for direct service providers and Conversations on Access to Lethal Means for community members, now known as Oregon CALM and Oregon Community CALM. She co-led research with young adults in Oregon, and was on the development team for adapting the Youth SAVE (Suicide Assessment in Virtual Environments) curriculum for young adults.
Michelle has provided leadership in local and national coalitions and professional organizations, including the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide Equity Committee Co-chair, Mid-Willamette Valley Suicide Prevention Coalition (MVSPC) Co-chair, Marion County Health and Human Services Zero Suicide Champions Co-chair, BHK Child Development Board Healthy Families Coalition Co-chair, American College Health Association (ACHA) Health Promotion Section Chair/Co-chair, Michigan Technological University President’s Commission on Wellness Co-chair, The Ohio State University Sexual Violence Prevention Committee Co-chair, and Oregon State University Prevention & Advocacy Coalition Co-chair. She is currently the Campus Advocates and Prevention Professionals Association (CAPPA) Research Chair, is active in the Benton County Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition, supports the work of Oregon’s Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan (YSIPP), and helped to develop the state’s first Adult Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan (ASIPP), along with a Suicide Prevention Equity Screening Tool.
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Michelle has been honored with an achievement award for demonstrated commitment to gender equity and social justice. She has written and received nearly a million dollars in local and federal grants and foundation dollars, led and supported qualitative and quantitative research projects, authored professional publications, presented her research and prevention programs nationally, and served as a subject matter expert to local and national media outlets. She also has lived experience that makes her passionate about creating healthy communities where all people can thrive.
Some of Michelle’s favorite activities include downhill skiing, waterfall hikes, and river floats with her family. She also enjoys spending time at her sewing machine and snuggled on the couch with Nash, their min-pin-weenie terrier!
Charlette Glaus, RN, CCRN , co-founder of Incite Agency for Change and contracted RN with the State of Oregon - Child Welfare program has been a nurse for 19 years. She spent 15 years as an Intensive Care Unit and Rapid Response nurse, 2 years as a Trauma Performance Improvement and Patient Safety nurse coordinator, and 7 years as a Trauma Injury Prevention Program nurse for Salem Health and Hospital. She has also worked as a Deputy Medical Examiner for Polk County, Oregon. She served as the Co-Chair and then Chair of the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide, Co-Chair of the Transitions of Care Committee, actively participated in the Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan for Oregon and the first ever Adult Suicide and Intervention Prevention Plan for Oregon, served as a Marion-Polk CHIP committee member, Marion County Substance Use Committee and Steering Committee member prior to its disband, and she is an active member of the Mid-Valley Suicide Prevention Coalition. Charlette is a trainer for multiple evidence-based prevention and intervention trainings including SafeTALK, ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer), Youth SAVE (Suicide Assessment in Various Environments), Sources of Strength, Oregon CALM (Counseling on Access to Lethal Means) for direct service providers, and Oregon Community CALM, and CONNECT Postvention.
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Charlette Glaus
RN, CCRN
Charlette works with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs (AOCMHP) on the development of the Oregon CALM curricula and serves as a state Lead Trainer and Mentor. She has also developed curricula for Salem Health including a court mandated High Risk Drivers’ Course, and youth focused programs on healthy relationships, suicide prevention, substance use prevention, and trauma injury prevention. She has developed programs for youth and families to learn together around the topics of mental health and suicide prevention and contributed to the curriculum development of Youth SAVE and Youth SAVE for Young Adults for the Oregon Pediatric Society and OHA.
Charlette hosts numerous wellness retreats, both personal and professional, that help guide individuals towards healing, hope, resilience, and transformation of pain to action and impact. She has won many awards throughout her career in Nursing Excellence, Practice & Teaching, and Professional Excellence.
Charlette also has the invaluable lived experience of loss of loved ones to suicide along with being a mom of a 25-year-old daughter with prior suicide ideation and behaviors, methamphetamine and heroin addiction, and substance and mental health recovery.
Outtakes
Professional with a
*pinch* of humor
Passionate with a
*dash* of sass
Sweet with an *ounce*
of sarcasm
