SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Sometimes life thows us curveballs. Sometimes we even get knocked down.
But we're still standing.
We hope to share with others some of our greatest lessons about how we navigated life's difficulties, gained strength and resilience along the way, and worked towards our own healing.
A Mom’s Journey of Love, Trauma, Mental Health, Addiction, and Learning how to Navigate the System
This speaking engagement will share multi-generational lived experience around the intersections of intra-uterine trauma, generational trauma, suicide loss and survival, and substance use and recovery. Becoming a widow to suicide and giving birth a week later, my child needing open heart surgery at 13 and then struggling with mental health, addiction, and compounding trauma - none of that was in my plans as a parent.
I was educated, informed, and an ICU and Injury Prevention Nurse teaching suicide and substance abuse prevention out in communities. And I still didn’t see it coming, the impact of trauma and its ripple effect. A child struggling with a substance use disorder and mental health challenges didn’t easily fit into any one specific setting. The barriers of “which one came first” seemed endless and as a parent I found myself crying out into the void, “both need to be cared for together!” How does one get the help and healing they need when they don’t seem to fit into any “one” mold? Systemic change, societal acceptance, empathy, and healing begin by breaking the silence. In this session I will share lived experience of suicide loss throughout my and my daughter’s lives, how to hold hope, effects of generational trauma, learned lessons, the importance of using a co-occurring approach, and recovery. A video clip or in-person appearance will allow my daughter Jordyn, now 24, who was born post-intrauterine trauma related to suicide, to share her lived experience journey around mental health, substance use, and recovery.
Duration: 1.5-3 hour Keynote Address, possible discussion facilitation
Audience: Healthcare Providers, Parents, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agencies, Human Services Agencies, Community, Schools
This highly customizable talk can vary in length and cost. Please reach out to discuss your needs.
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A Community of HOPE: Healing Oracles Peacefully Empowering the World. And we can do it Together.
In this deeply moving and authentic talk, a powerful voice of lived experience invites audiences into the transformative strength of community in the face of suicide, loss, and mental health challenges. Through a journey marked by profound personal tragedy—including the loss of loved ones to suicide and navigating a child’s mental health and recovery—the speaker shares a story of resilience, survival, and ultimately, hope.
This speaking engagement explores the complexity of the human experience—holding space for grief, fear, joy, and connection all at once—and emphasizes the critical role that community plays in healing. Attendees will be reminded that they are not alone, that their stories matter, and that hope can exist even in life’s darkest moments.​ Grounded in both personal experience this talk also highlights the importance of suicide awareness, direct and compassionate communication, and trauma-informed, person-centered support. Audience members will leave feeling seen, understood, and empowered—with practical insight, renewed hope, and a deeper belief in the power of collective healing.
Duration: 30min 1.5hrs hour Keynote Address, possible discussion facilitation
Audience: Healthcare Providers, Parents, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agencies, Human Services Agencies, Community, Schools
This highly customizable talk can vary in length and cost. Please reach out to discuss your needs.
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Putting the Patient First: Critical Care Beyond the Monitor
With 19 years of experience at the bedside, this seasoned ICU nurse brings a powerful and practical perspective on what it truly means to put patients first in high-stakes medical environments. This talk goes beyond vital signs and alarms, focusing on the human being behind the monitor—and the family and friends who are an essential part of their care journey.
Blending clinical expertise with compassionate storytelling, this presentation emphasizes treating every patient as if they were your own loved one. Attendees will gain insight into how to interpret subtle changes in a patient’s condition that technology alone cannot capture, and how presence, observation, and intuition play a critical role in outcomes. This speaking engagement also dives into critical thinking in complex care—understanding how a primary diagnosis can impact the entire body, recognizing early warning signs of deterioration, and anticipating complications before they escalate. Through real-world examples, participants will learn how to connect the dots between systems, ask better questions, and advocate more effectively for their patients. This talk is both a reminder and a call to action: exceptional care happens when clinical skill and human connection work hand in hand.
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Key Themes:
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Patient and family centered care in the ICU
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Seeing beyond the monitor: clinical intuition and observation
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Critical thinking across body systems
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Early recognition of complications and subtle changes
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Advocacy, empathy, and treating patients like family
Duration: Variable Keynote Address, possible discussion facilitation
Audience: Healthcare Providers and Professionals, Nursing Students, Interdisciplinary Care Teams, and Healthcare Organizations Committed to Compassionate, High-quality Care.
This highly customizable talk can vary in length and cost. Please reach out to discuss your needs.
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Unavoidable Intersections
Substance use disorders, mental health challenges, and suicide behavior are often addressed separately, and individuals with these Co-Occurring Disorders (CODs) are largely underserved. This presentation highlights compelling data illustrating the intersections and high-impact strategies that are emerging and are supported by SAMHSA. It also offers creative approaches to person-centered, trauma-informed treatment, services, and strategies, including addressing environmental and social conditions and equitable approaches, and community-based strategies.
Duration: 1.5-2 hour presentation
Audience: Healthcare Providers, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agencies, Human Services Agencies
This presentation can vary in length and cost. Please reach out to discuss your needs.
Building a Network of Safety: Connecting the Dots Using a Holistic Approach
Despite the significant connection between substance use disorders (SUD) and suicide, resources that effectively address both issues together remain limited. This session introduces a practical, scaffolded framework the "Network of Safety Shield" designed to support individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts alongside co-occurring disorders (CODs). Grounded in an integrated, person-centered approach, this presentation explores the critical intersection of substance use and suicide risk, emphasizing why a COD lens is essential for meaningful prevention and intervention.
Participants will gain insight into how gaps in current systems can be addressed across the lifespan, with strategies that move beyond siloed care toward coordinated, comprehensive support. Attendees will also learn how organizations and communities can build capacity through high-impact, sustainable initiatives. The session highlights how to identify and engage the individuals and sectors best positioned to contribute across the continuum of care—including prevention, intervention, clinical response, and postvention—while maintaining a strong recovery-oriented perspective. This presentation equips participants with actionable tools, strategic frameworks, and a deeper understanding of how to create more connected and effective systems of care for those most at risk. Key Themes: The intersection of substance use and suicide risk, applying a co-occurring disorders (COD) framework, the “Network of Safety Shield” model for integrated support, addressing system gaps across the lifespan, building sustainable, community-based capacity, coordinating prevention, intervention, treatment, and postvention through a recovery lens.
Duration: Variable
Audience: Designed for all levels of staff working within Student Affairs, but may be especially helpful for Health Promotion and Campus Prevention Practitioners, Counseling Center Staff, Deans of Students, and Residence Hall Staff. Also designed for Behavioral Health professionals, Healthcare providers, Community Leaders, Educators, Policymakers, and multidisciplinary Teams working across mental health and substance use systems.
This presentation can vary in length and cost. Please reach out to discuss your needs.
Campus Suicide Prevention: Building a Network of Safety offers an introduction to higher ed-specific recommendations for creating a network of safety and comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. Consider how to integrate suicide prevention with broader campus prevention efforts. Identify frameworks for developing a comprehensive campus suicide prevention strategy and collect valuable capacity-building resources to support your work and create sustainable efforts.​​​​​
Duration: 1.5-2 hour presentation
Audience: Designed for all levels of staff working within Student Affairs, but may be especially helpful for Health Promotion and Campus Prevention Practitioners, Counseling Center Staff, Deans of Students, and Residence Hall Staff
This presentation can vary in length and cost. Please reach out to discuss your needs.
Incite Training & Technical Assistance
Incite Agency for Change also provides consultation and content expertise. But you are the expert on your community and organization! As such, we view any kind of consultation as a highly collaborative process. Some of the ways we may be able to support your agency’s work include the following:
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Tailored Booster Trainings
We have developed customizable booster trainings to reinforce key concepts, refresh skills, and build confidence with suicide community helper and intervention skills. They include structured dialogue, Q&A, agency resources, customized scenarios, and additional practice opportunities.
Customized Training Programs & Educational Curricula
We have experience creating evidence-based, research-informed trainings and workshops on a variety of suicide prevention and public health topics for a range of audiences, including youth, young adults, families, communities members, and professionals.
Creating a Scaffolded Approach to Training & Prevention Efforts
Everyone can have a role in prevention, different roles require different depths of training and expertise, and all of these roles can work together to create a network of safety for your clients, staff, families, and community. We can help identify who within your organization or community could benefit from what level of training, recommend the best trainings to meet those needs, and provide trainings if we are able.
Have other ideas of ways we might be able to help?
We would love to hear them!