Dr. Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber is a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and her work is saving lives all over the globe. The President of the American Psychiatric Association noted her work with the Columbia Protocol could be “like the introduction of antibiotics.” The U.S. Department of Defense said that her work is “nothing short of a miracle,” the CDC noted that her work is “changing the paradigm in suicide risk assessment in the US and worldwide,” and The White House highlighted the Columbia Protocol app as helping to achieve the President’s mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. Dr. Posner was awarded The Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for her work leading to suicide reduction across the nation.

Dr. Posner’s work has been noted in a keynote speech at the White House, cited in Congressional hearings, and she gave the lead presentation in a U.S. Senate forum on school safety. Jim Shelton, Former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Education, says her work “has the potential to keep the 64 million children in our schools safe physically and mentally by helping prevent school violence.” Stand with Parkland said, “We found another big piece of the school shooting puzzle...the first thing to interrupt the pathway to violence.” She gave the invited presentation on tackling depression and suicide at the first European Union high level conference on mental health. In Israel, where the protocol is in every school teacher’s hands, officials said her work “is not only saving millions of lives but in Israel it is literally changing the way we live our lives.” Through her advocacy, she has changed local, national and international policy, which in turn has helped achieve reductions in suicide across all sectors of society. The Columbia Protocol is policy across all 50 states, national agencies, and most countries. The FDA has characterized Dr. Posner’s work as “setting a standard in the field.” Her scholarly work has been included in the compendium of the most important research in the history of the study of suicide.