about still you rise

One person lost is too many.

Still you rise was born out of necessity. While serving as a university student affairs administrator and doctoral researcher, the number of suicide ideations, attempts, and deaths rose with no clear explanation. The behavior intervention team I served on alerted faculty members of the students involved and the reaction was shocking.

What the team and I noticed was almost universal. The faculty members expressed worry about the student, citing many warning signs they had noticed, but none of them reported the concerning behavior or intervened in any way. As shocking as this was, it pointed to a larger problem: Faculty were not being taught how to intervene.

Worse, there was no research about the faculty's role in intervention. All the training and intervention efforts and related research were focused on student affairs professionals and student housing. Faculty suicide prevention training was completely overlooked. This training is imperative on high school, college, and university campuses.

Still you rise is filling that gap with up to date research, training, and consulting aimed at reducing the rate of suicide and other concerning behaviors among youth in America.

A light skinned Asian woman with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes smiles while looking slightly upward on a college campus. She is wearing a black t-shirt and watch, with hoop earrings and a mouthguard. Her backpack is slung over one shoulder.

meet the founder

Dr. Rikki Turner

Rikki spent years as a higher education administrator and served on behavior intervention teams. She was often called upon to intervene with suicidal students. This experience led her to focus her dissertation study on faculty's willingness to intervene with suicidal students. She has made it her mission to reduce the number of suicides by teaching others practical, accessible strategies to intervene.

Rikki is a state and regional award-winning speaker and presenter. Using humor and personal stories, her keynotes draw attendees of all ages. She is actively involved in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the Association for College Personnel Educators (ACPA), the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), and the JED Foundation, among others. She is also engaged in ongoing research to further understand college student suicidal behavior and effective intervention strategies.