Continuing Your Impact After Graduation:
Don’t lose touch – Staying Involved in Mental Health Advocacy Long Post Graduation
Ashley Smith heard about Active Minds during her senior year of college and quickly became
involved. She served as the Student Government Association Representative and participated in
various events across campus, and was even asked to tell her story of life with mental illness.
After graduation, Ashley still wanted to remain as involved with Active Minds as possible so she
was thrilled when the opportunity to become a member of the Active Minds Alumni Network
Leadership Council turned up. Aside from staying involved with Active Minds, Ashley works as
a Mental Health Advocate for a local human services agency and participates in mental health
events across the area. It was her involvement in Active Minds that made her realize that mental
illness is nothing to be ashamed of or silent about, nor is it something that can't be successfully
managed. She is living proof.
Alison Peterson is currently a Master of Public Health student at The Dartmouth Institute for
Health Policy and Clinical Practice. While pursuing this degree, Ali is taking classes in policy,
clinical research, and ethics. She is applying this knowledge simultaneously in an internship
which expands an evidence-based vocational training program for persons with stabilized mental
illness to thirteen different states (and hopefully more soon!). In addition, Ali is part of a team
conducting a systematic review of the side effects attributable to atypical antipsychotics.
Ms. Peterson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2010 with high honors, earning a Bachelor of
Arts degree in Women’s and Gender Studies. Completing a self-designed, interdisciplinary
concentration in Biological Sex Differences, Ms. Peterson’s studies included the publication of a
review article of sex-differences in HIV-1 susceptibility and a functional magnetic resonance
imaging thesis studying sex differences in negativity processing. She received the Rockefeller
Senior Honors Thesis grant for her senior honors thesis research and the Excellence in Women’s
and Gender Studies prize for her objective and interdisciplinary approach to gender issues.
While working towards her degree at Dartmouth, Peterson lead several service programs, serving
as the President of Active Minds at Dartmouth to address mental health awareness among young
people. She recently received Dartmouth’s Deans Plate for her commitment to community
health.
For questions about pursuing a Master’s in Public Health degree, feel free to contact her at:
decreasestigma@gmail.com
Asher Morris began working in mental health as a high school senior, participating on two
research teams. One group examined the correlation between intimate partner violence and child
maltreatment in low-income, African-American, female care-giver dyads. The other group
investigated both risk and protective factors for suicide attempts in abused and non-abused
African-American women.
Toward the end of Asher’s sophomore year in college, he urged his University’s counseling
center to work toward increasing mental health awareness on campus. In fall of 2007, he
established Active Minds at Yeshiva University and served as its president. Under his
leadership, the much avoided topics of suicide and mental illness on the undergraduate and
graduate campuses were integrated into daily conversation.
Throughout his career at YU, Asher participated on a research team focusing on the
psychological effects of bullying. During his junior year at YU, Asher was selected to be a
member of the Active Minds National Student Advisory Committee.
Asher was interviewed for various campus media, including the University’s magazine,
undergraduate newspapers, and radio shows. His most notable interview was on Fox 5 News
New York in a segment about teen suicide. He also spoke at events on his campus about his own
struggle with depression and an attempt to take his life at the age of 15. By stepping out of his
comfort zone, he hoped to inspire other college students to seek the help they needed.
For his hard work to increase awareness and education throughout his University, Asher was
awarded the Mina Belkin Memorial Award for Service and Dedication to the College and the
Student Council Leadership Award.
Asher graduated from Yeshiva University in 2009 with a B.A. in biology and psychology. Since
graduating, he has been working as an EMT-Intermediate for Grady Emergency Medical
Services in Atlanta. Through his work, Asher has had the privilege of providing emergency care
to many patients who suffer from various acute mental health issues. Asher plans to obtain a
Master’s in Public Health with which he will continue to educate the community and his coworkers about various health issues, including mental health.
Currently, Asher serves as the Chair of the Active Minds Alumni Network Leadership Council.
Asher can be contacted at AshMo106@gmail.com
Jeremy Bersin has been working as a mental health advocate since 2002. He began his early
work while in high school as a co-founder of Caring, Outreach, and Prevention for Everyone
(COPE), a program dedicated to educating his community about the warning signs of suicide and
depression and the resources that are available to students, faculty, staff, administrators and
parents. He also served on his town’s Substance Abuse Prevention Commission and its Suicide
Prevention Grant Committee as the sole student liaison to both organizations.
Once in college, Jeremy became the Founding President of Active Minds at UConn. From there,
he was selected to serve on the Active Minds’ Student Advisory Committee, and quickly elected
President by his peers.
After graduating from the University of Connecticut, where he received his B.A. in Political
Science and Sociology, he worked for Energy Inside, a start-up company focusing on health and
wellness, where he served as the Director of Marketing and Outreach. In this position, he
developed the entire social networking, marketing and outreach strategies for pepfly, the
company’s flagship mental health product, and was responsible for creating, coordinating and
monitoring all social media accounts including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Vimeo and
WordPress.
In August 2010, Jeremy began working for BringChange2Mind (BC2M), a non-profit
organization created by actress Glenn Close which uses a multi-media approach to de-stigmatize
mental health. Along with co-coordinating the BC2M blog and Twitter accounts, Jeremy serves
as the Partnership Coordinator and assists in setting up collaborative partnerships for various
events and campaigns, and works on day-to-day organizational tasks.
Jeremy currently serves on the Active Minds Alumni Network’s Executive Council and Cochairs the Fundraising and Communications Committees, as well as the Connecticut Youth
Suicide Advisory Board. He enjoys teaching high school and college students about suicide and
substance abuse prevention and stigma. He also works as a certified Emergency Medical
Technician and, in his spare time, he likes to sleep, eat, read, work.
Jeremy can be contacted at Jeremy.Bersin@gmail.com