Alison Malmon

Alison K. Malmon is founder and Executive Director of Active Minds, Inc., the nation's leading organization dedicated to empowering students to speak openly about mental health in order to educate others and encourage help seeking. Alison formed the organization in 2003, following the suicide of her only sibling, twenty-two year old brother Brian Malmon. Wanting to combat the stigma that had caused her brother to suffer in silence and ultimately take his own life, she created a group on her campus at the University of Pennsylvania that promoted an open, enlightened dialogue around the issues. Upon graduating Phi Beta Kappa in Psychology and Sociology, Alison formed the 501(c)3 organization in order to develop and support chapters of the student group on campuses around the country. She has since served as Executive Director of the non-profit organization, engaging thousands of student leaders nationwide through more than 350 campus chapters, and promoting a unified national voice for young adults in the mental health awareness movement.

For her efforts, Alison has been named Washingtonian of the Year (2007) by Washingtonian magazine, Citizen of the Year (2008) by the Potomac, Maryland Rotary Club, and a Woman of Distinction by the American Association of University Women and National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. She has also received the Tipper Gore Remember the Children Award from the National Mental Health Association, inaugural Young Leadership Award from the National Mental Health Research Association (NARSAD), and was named the first-ever Montgomery County Public Schools (MD) Distinctive Alumnus in 2007. Alison has been profiled as a "Person you Should Know" on CNN, and in stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, Glamour magazine, ABC's Good Morning America, among others.

In addition to her work at Active Minds, Alison sits on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Consumer/Survivor Subcommittee, Suicide Prevention Resource Center's Steering Committee, Bringing Theory to Practice Project Planning Committee, and Students of AMF Board of Directors. In her spare time, Alison enjoys teaching the flying trapeze at the Trapeze School in Washington, DC.